Out of Disorder, into Chaos
by SAmaster01
Summary: You leave the Vault. Bad. But your not alone. Good. Vaultie steps into the big bad world, with his best friend, and now girlfriend, Amata. It's good to have a buddy with you. Better still to have a second gun.
1. Prelude

Amata lay face up on her bead thinking about her day and her life. Today was an ordinary day, just like any other in Vault 101. Wake up, work, give praise to her father a.k.a. the Overseer, and go to sleep. Except she had a scheduled check-up with the Vault Physician.

She had stopped by the clinic, and saw her best friend, and high-school crush, Sam, at the clinic too, coming round to visit his father, the good Doctor himself. James, the Doctor seemed to be preoccupied with his thoughts after his kid left. When Amata had asked about it, he asked what she thought of Sam. The question had taken her aback, but she had told him she thought he was a bright young man, that he had found his place in the Vault, and doing well for himself. She wondered if he had been wondering about the crush she had on him, but he went back on with the check-up.

A while longer, he asked another question, one a little more serious, and more thought provoking. Did she feel as though she's made a difference in the world. She had to say that no, she really hadn't, but with the Vault as secure and safe as it was, there was no real reason to change anything. Was there? His eyes had glassed over, as though he were staring at some unknown object that only he could see. He then asked what she though the most worthwhile thing she had done was. When she thought about it carefully, even being the Overseer's daughter hadn't given her many oppurtunities to do much worthwhile in the Vault. She wasn't in the Debate team, she hadn't joined the club that sprang up trying to reserect the lost art of cooking that so many other Woman had, she hadn't even been part of the Vault Little League team apart from being on the sidelines to watch her best friend play. The only thing she could consider worthwhile was knowing her best friend Sam, but she couldn't say that in front of his Dad, so she had to say that she didn't know.

Again his eyes went blank, but the check-up was about finished, so she left with a head full of questions, and few answers.

She decided to turn on her side and go to sleep. Maybe she could go to that Ice-cream Social that the Mack family was to be holding, and that could take her mind off tShe fell asleep, looking forward to another day in the morning that could give her time to think.

* * *

_"Wake up! Wake up!" "Please... he's my friend..."_

_ "Weird I was just dreaming about you." "If you ever lay a hand on Amata again, I'll make you regret it." _

_ "You freeze!"_

_ "You gotta help me, my mom's trapped in there with the RadRoaches!"_

_ "We're getting out of here, just like the Doc."_

_ "Anyone found outside their quarters will be punished." "Severely."_

_ "Just get out of here, and I'll, I-I-I'll pretend I never saw you."_

_ "You, this is all your fault, you and your stupid father!"_

_ "Tsk, tsk, tsk, I do believe you've missed him. Went up topside for a bit of air. Should be back any minute now."_

**TOMORROW**

* * *

He pulled the lever, and a warning siren went off, with orange lights going round and round.

"He's atually doing it!"

"Quick, we need to get that door open now!"

A puff of steam, and a giant lever like device that hung from the ceiling slowly swung down, and then latched on to a heavy cog shaped steel door that had kept at bay the horrors of the apocolypse.

"Oh my god... you actually opened it."

The lever then pulled away, pulling the door inward, with an ear-screeching sound, and let go, and the cog shaped door tumbled to the side, letting in a huge puff of hot and dry air in from a world devastated by war.

The young man known as Sam turned to his best friend Amata next to him. Put simply today was hell. His father had left, RadRaoches were plaguing the Vault, people were being killed, Amata had just been beaten, and Sam had _killed_ the man who did it. Today was Hell.

It was nearly impossible to think that he could kill someone, but he had. He was the goddamn nerd of the Vault for Christ's Sake! He was the one that constantly bullied in school, and his best friend was a woman who simply took pity on him, and who's father hated him, and now he was a cold-blooded killer!

"You did it! You actually opened it! My god I almost didn't believe it was possible." Amata said.

Sam looked her straight in the eyes and said "I couldn't have done it without your help."

"No, you didn't need my help." Amata told him. "If anyone can survive out there, it's you."

Sam stared at the exit for a bit, thinking.

"Do you... do you think you could... could you come with me?" Sam asked.

The question surprised her. She knew that she should stay. She had no reason to leave the Vault, and she was the only one who could get to her father... maybe. And she knew that Sam didn't need her. But at the same time she desperately wanted to go regardless.

Sensing her hesitation, Sam said something again. "Amata... before I go... we both know that it's extremely likely I'll... _die_ out there. And even if I don't... I'm never getting back inside here. I killed a man today Amata, I killed Officer Mack. I've got nothing left, no life, no family. Just-just you, and I know I'm asking you to throw everything away and that youve got a life and that I shouldnt be (Gasp) !"

Amata was blown out of her mind.

Sam couldn't look her in the eye's. "I love you Amata. For as long as... ever. You've been the one reason I can stand always being picked on, and getting put down, and being able to get up in the mornings. Your smart, funny, strong minded, and absolutely beautiful, and-and that I, I-"

Amata silenced him by grabbing his shoulder. She turned him to face her, but his eyes were glued to the floor. She lifted his face to look at hers, and then she jumped on him, and assaulted his lips, kissing him vigourously, to which he slowly responded with equal passion.

She pulled away at the mind blowing experience, albeit relunctantly. "You could have stopped at I love you." She told him.

She couldn't believe that she had done what she had just done. But she didn't regret it in the least, and hoped she could do it again soon. She had thought her feelings for affection had stopped once the had gotten their assigned jobs but it hadn't. She tried repressing her feeling for him, feeling it was a relationship fated never to be, but right now, all her emotions flooded her mind, and she had practically knocked him down with that kiss. Despite the fact that her father had ordered her beaten, and people had died today, and that she was facing the choice of whether to leave her home, or see her loved one vanish... she felt wonderful.

"So is that a yes then?" Sam asked hesitantly.

"I still think you don't need me." Amata said, getting off him. "But... I think I need you. My father changed today. I don't think I can help. Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I don't think my father is a different man than he was yesterday."

"So it is a yes."

"Yes, I'm saying yes." Amata said finally.

"Good."

"There he is!" One of the Security Guards yelled as they finally managed to get through the door behind them.

Sam was what used to be called a Deer caught in headlights. Amata recognized the glint in the officers eyes as the same one that were in Officers Mack when he had been ordered to beat her by her father. She grabbed Sam and ran towards the exit, and made the transitions from hard metal to worn gravel and sand. She made what would normally be a mistake, by looking back on her pursuer's, but saw that they had stopped before the door, and wouldn't budge.

"Why aren't you going!"

"I'm not crazy enough to go out there, I don't see you moving!"

Amata gave a sigh of relief as the two began to continue walking onwards, towards the light at the end of the tunnel. When she turned her back however, one of the guards took out his pistol, and aimed.

Before she could move he fired, but Sam managed to intervene, putting himself between him and the bullet, with it hitting, and digging into his shoulder. He grave a brief grunt of pain, but stayed still incase more shots were fired. But they weren't.

The door was being closed, and various arguments were breaking out. They wanted to stop the door closing, to get back the Overseers daughter, and they wanted to know who was stupid enough to fire there gun, and various other things, that were being drowned out by the screech of the giant metal door.

Amata just grabbed onto her best friend, as he slumped on to her.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Amata asked. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"Actually, that's exactly what I had been thinking." Sam said. "I saw a gun, I saw it pointed at you, and I couldn't stand seeing you hurt again. Least no one died this time."

"Come on, maybe we can find some medical supplies, or something." Amata said, as the two walked towards the end of the tunnel. They stopped only once before the door, to listen to the grave silence, and look at the remains of those who died trying to get in to the Vault 101 200 years ago. Little did they know of the far more chilling sights they would encounter as the days went on.

Amata reached for a small wooden gateway that led to the outside, and hesitated only a moment before grabbing onto it, and stepping outside. Into a blinding light.

* * *

CONNECTION LOST

PLEASE STAND BY

ESTABLISHING CONNECTION NOW...

CONNECTION ESTABLISHED

PRESS PLAY


	2. Into the Open

The light blinded them at first, and as it did so, they felt as though their old lives soon passed away from the brilliant light, and were born again into this new world. The two blinked away the spots in their vision, and walked forward, as their sight slowly returned. They began to make out the dirt road, the rocks, and the cliff that surrounded them, and further along. Then they could see a dead tree, with it's leaves having withered away long, long ago, and in the distance an ancient water tower, and further outward, a wide, bumpy scenery unfolded. And at last, the two managed to make out the wide city-scape, with a round egg-shaped roof, and a lone obelisk sticking out towards the sky.

The two walked past the tree, and over some rocks and stood before the cliff's edge, right next to a worn metal sign saying Scenic Overlook.

"All of it. Ruined." Amata whispered. The reality of the devastation unfolded for them, as they stepped into a world with an endless horizon. To their right they could make out a broken highway that was climbing into the air, and before them lay the ruined husk of an old town known as Springvale, and a road slowly ran through the bumpy desert like a snake, with only the occasional tree poking from the landscape before the ruins of a once-pround nations capitol.

They had Escaped the Vault.

-----------------------

LEVEL UP

SAM:

TAG SKILLS: SMALL GUNS, REPAIR, ENERGY WEAPONS

SPECIAL: 5 7 6 3 7 7 4

NEW PERK: LADY KILLER

AMATA:

TAG SKILLS: SPEECH, SNEAK, SCIENCE

SPECIAL: 5 7 4 7 6 6 5

NEW PERK: BLACK WIDOW

------------------------

"Let me down here Amata." Sam said. She let him sit himself down with his feet dangling over the cliffs edge, looking out to a world left behind.

"Hows that wound?" She asked.

"Not so bad. Should probably take the bullet out though." Sam said.

"Okay, tell me if it starts to hurt." Amata said. Sam leaned over so she could look at the wound. "It's not too deep. I can see the bullet." She said, pulling apart the rip in his jumpsuit from where the bullet hit. "I'm gonna try to take it out now." She slowly reached in, but pulled back as she heard a sharp cry of pain.

"Don't stop for me, just yank it out. Like a band-aid." Sam said.

She checked to see the bullet. It was still there. She gripped his should tightly, and delved in. Sam began to squirm wildly from the pain, and whimpered a whole lot, but Amata continued until she felt the bullet, and picked it out.

"God, that hurt worse than when it went in." Sam said.

"Well it's out now. Souvenir?" She said, showing him the bullet.

"Thanks, I'll treasure it always." He said, taking it, and holding it in his hand.

The two just stared at the ruined landscape once more, and didn't speak for a few more minutes.

"What time is it?" Amata asked, looking up at the great bright light that was on the ceiling.

"About noon."

"Thought so. I was getting hungry."

The two sat in silence once more.

"So... what now." Amata said, looking in front of her again.

"My.... Dad left me a note. I found it.... I found on Jonas' _body_. It was in his hand, this Holotape. I didn't have time to listen to it," Amata looked at him, seeing he was wracked with emotions inside. "so I-I downloaded it to my Pip-Boy. Guess we should listen to it."

Sam pushed a few buttons until he was on his notes section, and pressed play.

_"Hold on Jonas, I need to record this first."_ James' voice played.

_"I.. I don't really know how to tell you this. I hope you'll understand, but I know you might be angry. I thought about it for a long time, but in the end I decided it was best for you not to know. So many things could have gone wrong and there's really no telling how the Overseer will react when he finds out. It's best if he can blame everything on me."_ Sam gave a mournful chuckle out of his mouth._ "Obviously you already know that I'm gone. It was something I needed to do. You're an adult now. You're ready to be on your own. Maybe someday things will change and we can see each other again. I can't tell you why I left or where I'm going. I don't want you to follow me. God knows life in the Vault isn't perfect, but at least you'll be safe. Just knowing that will be enough to keep me going."_

_"Don't mean to rush you, Doc, but I'd feel better if we got this over with."_ Jonas' voice played.

_"Okay. Go ahead. Goodbye. I love you."_ James said, before the recording stopped.

Amata looked at her best friend. He had been staring at the bullet that had been in his back since Amata had taken it out, and not once had he looked upwards since. Amata couldn't see his eyes, and couldn't make out what he was feeling.

He moved as if jolted, but then stood still. Then he had a fit of jolts, until Amata understood that he was crying. It poured out of him, like a flood, feelings that he had to pent up until he had left, now flowing freely. It was too much. He truly understood that everything he had ever known had forced him out into this world, and he had absolutely _nothing_ now. He had lost everything.

_'Everything except me.'_ Amata thought. She grabbed on to him, and let him cry over his shoulder, as he wept uncontrollably. Amata did her best to comfort him. Eventually he stopped, but only when he ran out of tears.

"You okay?" She asked.

Sam got off from her and looked blankly into the horizon. "I don't know what to think Amata." He said, his voice still chocked with emotion. "I loved him. He was a strong man, a good man, he seemed to understand so well about how life worked. He was... epic. I guess. He wasn't just my Dad, and the Doctor, but a man with a greater understanding of life in the Vault. And now... he left me, and then the world turned to hell. I don't know what to think Amata. I just don't know."

Amata looked at him a while longer. "Your not alone though. You've got me."

Sam turned to look at her sorrowfully, his eyes know red after his crying fit. "That's almost part of it. You had a life in there. I took it."

"You didn't." Amata said adamantly. "You've always been a great friend to me, and I've also... loved you too for a long time. I just didn't say anything because... well I felt we were like Romeo and Juliet."

"We were like 14th century Italian aristocrats?" Sam asked, turning around to look at her.

"Was that a joke?"

"Guess so."

"Well, I felt that it was just something.... not meant to be. Not with the way my father disapproved of you. And he was the Overseer. If he saw something he didn't like, he got rid of it."

"Yeah."

"But, the Overseer isn't with us here, now is he." Amata said. "Here I can love you as much as I want."

"So you don't regret coming out here?"

"Not in the least. Besides. I want to see what the outside world is like."

"Good." Sam said, relieved. "Does that mean we're... boyfriend/girlfriend now?"

"It does." Amata said, giving him another kiss, though this one a little more controlled, and a little less rushed.

"So... what now?" Amata asked, repeating her earlier question.

"We see what we have between us, and divide it." Sam said.

Amata managed to produce a bottle of water, five bobby pins, a screwdriver, a bottle opener, and a pencil. Sam had a bit more with him. He had with him three Vault Suits, two of which standard issue, one of which being a utility jumpsuit for dirty jobs, Butch's Tunnel Snakes Jacket, ten bobby pins a baseball, glove, and bat, a screwdriver of his own, his trusty BB Gun that he had since he was ten, two Vault Security uniforms and helmets, two Police Batons, the 10 MM Pistol that Amata had given him that morning, with two hundred rounds of 10 MM, three round of .32 ammunition, a packet of Mentats, fifteen Stimpacks, a syringe of Med-X, and ten stacks of Pre-War Money, and an issue of Grognak the Barbarian, #14.

The two decided to share the clothes amongst themselves, and that each of them would keep a security uniform (which they would change into when they could do so privately). Each decided they would need a weapon, but Amata refused to take back the Pistol, between the two of them, Sam had shot it one more time than Amata, but both took a Police Baton, and clipped it to their belt, and Amata took Sam's BB Gun, and Baseball bat with her. They split the medical supplies among themselves, but Sam didn't want to waste some on himself, in case they needed it for something worse.

"By the way, when I went inside your Dad's office, I found these scouting reports. Guessing they've got some equipment that says how much radiation is out here, or they contacted the Government to ask what's what." Sam said.

The two read the reports. And what they read shocked them. It was a scouting report. The Vault had been **Opened** before.

The reports confirmed the theory of mutation that they had learned about during science class, and a picture of a dead ant, compared to one of the search party members (whom they recognized as Stanley in his youth) showed that the RadRoaches weren't a one-time case when it came to increased size. They read on to see that Giant Ants weren't the biggest threat in this new world, and were actually pretty tame compared to other threats the team heard of. The one glimpse of good news that they could make out was that Humanity _had_ survived, and there was a small settlement not far from the ruins of Springvale.

"So, the Vault had been opened before?" Amata asked.

"I guess it kind of makes sense." Sam said. "If you think about. Nobody ever asked about the outside. Ever. It's been 200 years since the War, and nobody wanted to check the outside. If they did this trip earlier, and lost a lot of people... I guess it would explain why no one wanted out."

"But... why keep us in the dark?" Amata asked. "Maybe if we knew..."

"I bet if you and I knew, we'd still want to go out ourselves." Sam said. "We're still at the age were we assume we know everything. And what does Mr. Brotch say about assuming? It-"

"makes and Ass out of You and Me." They said together.

"But... I still wonder. What was the big deal about your father leaving?" Amata wondered.

"I don't know." Sam said. "The Vaults been opened before. Dad should have been able to leave with no commotion."

Amata just looked at Sam as he stared at the Horizon once more. "Come on." She said, getting up. "There's a town nearby, and we need to get you to a doctor."

Sam got up, and the two of them walked to the small path that led to the cracked pavement of the road down below. Now they were dealing with the destruction on a much more personal basis. They could see the ruined Automobiles every now and again that had crashed when the bombs hit, with no signs of life. It was just them, the road, the failed Automobiles, and the rusted rail. They continued on for about a mile, until they reached Springvale.

They could see the houses were not built to last. All that was left was rubble, and burnt out husks. There frames jutted out from the ground like a civilizations skeleton. The two headed towards a giant jagged object in the distance, hoping it to be the town in the reports. Along the way they scavenged what they could from the ruins. They found little, aside from the occasional skeleton. The ruins seemed to be picked clean.

Sam tried peering down a mailbox, and to his surprise, actually found something.

"Holy Hand Grenades!" Sam said, reaching down into the box.

"What?"

"Look at these!" Sam said, producing three round, yellow objects. He couldn't have looked happier if he was still a kid, and you told him his Birthday was coming early.

"Grenades? In a mailbox?" Amata asked.

"That's not all." Sam said, handing one to Amata, before diving back in to the box.

"There was also this." He said, coming back out, and producing a read canister attached to some inhaler. "What do you think it is?"

"Not sure, could be medicine, but we shouldn't use it until we know."

"Right." Sam said, dumping it into his bag.

They continued to walk down the street. They came across an ancient and abandoned playground. It seemed more deserted than the rest of the town with no children to play in it. They headed onward, scanning over the area, looking for anything useful.

_"Greetings, this --------------- and I'd like..."_

"Who's there?" Sam said, taking out his pistol. Someone was talking. Although, the voice seemed to be speaking to an audience, one that seemed non-existant. Sam heard a hum round the street corner, and aimed his pistol there. What he saw was very curious indeed. It was a round metal sphere, with a larger speaker dominating the front, and long whisker like appendages drifting behind it, as it somehow floated in midair. The odd thing continued speaking though, oblivious to the two Vault Dwellers presence.

_"Greetings dearest America, this is your President ,John Henry Eden, let's chat, shall we?"_

Amata nudged him, and pointed to her Pip-Boy. "It's a radio signal, look!" Sam looked at his own Pip-Boy, and turned to the Radio transmitter setting, and saw that a new signal had been found. He tuned into it, and the words that the odd thing had been saying were now playing from his Pip-Boy.

_"We live in an age of poverty, greed, and destruction,; indeed, the very seat of the federal government has been reduced to what is know known as... The Capital Wasteland."_

Sam and Amata looked over at the horizon again, seeing the Obelisk, and the egg-shaped roof in the distance. The speaker sounded very charismatic. Sam envisioned a young man in a business suit sitting behind a wooden desk, gelled brown hair, white teeth, square chin, and a gleam in his eyes, speaking into a radio speaker, with an American flag behind him.

"_The Capital Wasteland... how did it come to this? How did your leaders let the most powerful country in the world... to die? The answer's really quit simple:"_

Sam and Amata continued walking, with the lecture going on from their Pip-Boy's as they walked through the ruins.

_"Incompetence. Incompetence at the highest echelons of leadership! We put our trust, our faith, in half-wits! Our intrepid leaders, had everything they wanted, wealth, power- prestige... and it made them lazy America- Oh yes- and laziness, breeds stupidity. Rest assured, I will not make the same mistakes as my predesscors. When John Henry Eden builds a country- he builds it- to last."_

Both Sam and Amata turned off their radios at this point.

"Nice to know the government made it out okay." Amata said.

"Yeah, when this Eden guy is done, I'll run for office myself." Sam said.

"Maybe things aren't that bad out here." Amata mused.

They kept walking.

"Hey wait, look at this!" Sam said, jogging over to the ruins of a house. He was a bout to jump over an old wall before clutching his shoulder.

"Careful! Remember, your still injured!" Amata said, rushing towards him.

"Nothing I can't handle! Ill just have to man up!" Sam said.

"What is it that's in here?" Amata asked, trying to peer through over the wall.

"I saw through a window an old safe." Sam said, nursing his shoulder. "It was mostly blocked, so I can't go through there."

"I'll go in, see if I can find anything." Amata said. She jumped up, and grabbed the top of the wall, and climbed up, and jumped in. She looked around and saw that most of the house had collapse, and the chimney seemed to be the only stable structure there. She glimpsed the grey of the safe amidst the dark burned brown of the rubble. "I found the safe!' Amata told Sam. "I'll try to see if I can pick the lock!"

She pulled out a bobby pin, and inserted into the lock, and used the screwdriver with the lock. She soon managed to pick the lock, and peered inside. Inside she found an odd assortment. There were two bottles labeled 'Whiskey', one bottle of Wine, a few bundles of Pre-War Money, and an odd pistol. She but all of it into a bag, and climbed over the wall to where Sam was.

"What did you find?" Sam asked.

Amata showed him her bag. "Some drinks, some money, and most importantly a gun."

"Alcohol, Amata? Aren't we a little young?" Sam asked.

"I was thinking of selling them." Amata told him. "I thought you'd be more interested in the gun."

"Oh yeah, what'd you find?" Sam asked. Amata handed him the pistol she had found. "Hmm... I think I've seen this before... don't know where. Seems like an older model, compared to the 10 MM you gave me. Foreign too. I wonder..." He pulled at a part of the gun, and managed to find the part where the bullets were stored. He took out a box of ammo, and tried fitting in a bullet. It fit like a glove. "Looks like it takes 10 MM ammo." He said.

"Great, I've got a gun, I'm in a post-apocolyptic world, now all I need now is something to shoot." Amata said, taking the gun back, as well as half the ammo.

They kept walking.

And walking.

Soon they reached the city's limits.

"Hey look, a sign!" Amata said.

"A sign from God?" Sam asked.

"No, I mean an actual sign you dolt. Look!" Amata said, pointing to a piece of rusty metal that had the word 'MEGATON' painted on it in yellow spray-paint, with an arrow pointing towards a dirt-path. "Come on."

"Wait a second." Sam said, walking towards a decrepit Gas-Station.

"What is it?"

"A Nuka-Cola machine!" Sam said, incredulously. True enough, an old and worn Nuka-Cola machine of old stood proudly on the small plot of land that used to be a Gas-Station. "Wonder if it still works..." Sam mused. He pulled out a stack of bills from his bag, and looked at the machine.

"Your not actually gonna try using it, are you?" She asked, as he inserted a $50 bill into the machine. "That thing probably hasn't worked in 200-"

She was cut short by the sound of three quick clunks. Sam bent down, and returned to her holding three actual- albeit flat- Nuka-Cola's.

"You want one?" Sam asked. "We've been walking around an awful lot."

"I guess we could do with a rest." She said, sitting against a chainmail fence, with Sam sitting beside her. The two each slowly downed their respective bottles, and shared the third. "Let me take a look at that wound." She told him. Obediantly he turned his back to her, and she peered into the wound. "You've bleeding quite a bit here." Amata said.

"We should probably keep the wound clean. It would be just our luck today if germs had escaped the Atomic Genocide." Sam said.

Amata took out her water bottle, and pored a little into her hands, and started washing his wound. He grunted every now again, but didn't complain at all. _'He must be trying very hard to hide his pain if he makes this much noise when I touch him.'_ She thought. Finally, with the wound clean, the two got up, and headed towards Megaton. They kept the empty bottles and bottlecaps with them, not seeing any trashcan, and still too naive to understand their wasn't any enviroment left to ruin.

Another mile they walked, on a well trodden dirt road, as the jagged settlement of Megaton got bigger, and bigger. They finally reached the jagged settlement, and it was almost hard to make out what it was. Scraptown seemed to be more of an appropriate name for the place, but at this point the new couple should simply be happy they found civilization.

"Please.... I'm so thirsty." The two turned around to see a man sitting on the ground. His clothes and face were so dirty it was no surprise they didn't see him at first, he blended right into the background.

"Oh my god! Are you alright? Amata asked, rushing to the man's side.

"I just... so thirsty... I need water- purified water! I've been drinking this irradiated shit for weeks now, and I can't.... I just keep throwing it up now." The man said. His voice was dry, and it almost sounded as cracked as his lips were.

"Here, take this." Amata said, taking out her water bottle. It was half full after having been used to clean Sam's wound, but the man looked at it as if she were holding pure gold.

"You mean I can just have it? You don't want anything from me?"

"You need it, we don't." Amata said, almost confused. "Why would we want something from you when your just asking for something you'll die without.?"

"Bless you, both of you!" He said, taking the water, and quickly drinking it. "Oh, I'll never forget this, I promise!"

"Your welcome. By the way, where are we?" Amata asked.

"Your in Megaton. You haven't heard of Megaton? Everyone has." The man said.

"Nope, just came out of a Vault." Amata said.

"Yeah, guess I should have known." He said, pointing to the 101 on Sam's back, who was looking at the city in question. "Anyway, it's a trading center, high walls, not much to worry about. They have water, but they only give it to residents. Or those who can pay for it."

"Thanks." Amata said, looking at the town. "How do you get in?"

"Have to wait until the guard comes round, and sees your not a Raider."

"What's a Raider?" Amata asked.

"Christ, forgot how little you Vault Dwellers know." The man said. "Raiders are a bunch of drug-crazed Nazi's that take whatever they can. Most of them just kill and steal for fun. And rape. And other such things. Usually if you've got something, they want it. Some of them though, you can reason with, and trade, but they'll likely have you at gun point."

"Oh, we'll have to make sure to avoid them." Amata said. "Where can you find them?"

"Everywhere." The man said. "Old stores, sewers, radio stations, ancient houses, you see a place you think has something valuable, if it hasn't been picked clean, it's a Raider den. Think there's one not too far from here actually. Though most of the raids stopped last month, since the sheriff killed the leader." Sam turned to the man as he heard this, shocked that someone would do such a thing as kill someone else. Until he remembered he had done the same thing earlier today.

The small group heard two clinks. They turned to see a lone man on a catwalk over the giant gate. He banged his gun on the railing, making another two clink sounds, and robotic voice said:

"Welcome. To. Megaton. Please. Stand Clear. Of The Gate." The two got up, and walked slowly in front of the gate. An ancient rusted engine just below the catwalk fired up, and two giant sheets of metal moved upwards and to the sides revealing another, rather large gateway into the town. "Head. On. In. Partner. Please. Enjoy Your Stay."

"Oh, hey, you never told us your name." Amata said to the man on the ground.

"It's... it's Mickey." He said, almost surprised they care.

"Thanks, it was nice meeting you." Amata said.

With that, they entered, the small town, known as Megaton. Not knowing what to expect.

------------------------------

I've got two author's comments here, the first, being this one, is for those who read the story, and want to know more about my Ideas behind it, the second is for those wondering about my long abscence.

The Vaulties name in this fic, is actually a reference to 'Uncle Sam' for those wondering.

Now, to be honest, I felt that Amata should have had a bigger role in the story considering she seems to be the only one in the story who cares about you. Personally, I think that in the game any feeling Vaultie has for Amata are unrequited, or at least not enough to leave the Vault.

Another thing, is that given how Vaultie starts out, the first person he kills should have an important reason for being killed. I chose Officer Mack, because it would be rather romantic in a sense, and he would be the most important person to kill, excluding the Overseer of course. If you have an opinion on who Amata should kill first mention them down in your reviews (personally I've got next to nothing.)

I'll try to keep to the storyline, but stay away so that you don't go 'done this, skip to the good part', and one of the way's I'll be doing this is having Amata go through most of the converstaion, giving a new perspective. Still though, If I'm basically copy/pasting lines from the game too much, let me know.

The first chapter was originally meant to incorporate the two's first day in Megaton as well, but it was getting rather long. I'll try to keep the chapters to the point, and keep the two from wandering aimlessly, so they'll only go somewhere if they mean too.

I'll be taking concepts from other games and encorporating them into the story. One example is Army of Two, where Amata and Vaultie will take the place as Salem and Rios, being able to cover each other's backs, healing each other, even the use of aggro.

My Vaultie (Or at least the one in the story) Is meant to be somewhat of a nerd, or at least somewhat antisocial. I see that the only friends that you get in the Vault are Amata, Freddie, Jonas, Stanley, Officer Gomez, and of course Dad. I can understand a few people saying 'meh' to Freddie, but he's the only person aside from Amata who doesn't insult you during your G.O.A.T. and he's still seems okay to you on Trouble on the Homefront quest.

The Ass out You and Me line comes from my ninth grade math teacher, Coach Scott (I too questioned a Coach teaching math) the formula is written (Assume = Ass U + Me)

I know some people will disagree with Vaultie's portrayal, but to them I say, go read something else. I know It's likely that your Vaultie is some superhero that can go into a raider den, and come out smiling without a scratch, and that's okay. The only flaw that my game Vaultie has, is that he can be too compassionate, and that he tries a little to hard at times. But to be honest, it's kind of boring to read about someone who does no wrong, I mean, really _who is_ perfect? My writing formula, believe-it-or-not, stems from the popular machinima series, Red vs. Blue. The formula, put simply, is to take a bunch of horribly flawed charecters, and force them to work together, which is the premise for What's Left After. I make a point that every character I write has at least a single, basic flaw. Vaultie's is that he's incredibly socially inept, and Amata's will become more clear over time.

------------------

Hello! Now, I doubt any of those who read my other stories will read this, considering how different the genre of fanfiction is, for those who do care, I would like to explain my prolonged abscence. You see, I had been working on the next chapters for many of my stories, including Heart of a Heroine, What's left After, and my newest one, Rejoice. The problem is, that over the summer, my and my family took a week long vacation at the beach. The problem is, that believe it or not, the neighbors house got struck by lightning. Good news, the neighbors neighbor gave me a PS3 for only a hundred, with no bugs that I can't live with so far, the bad news is, that the blender got fried, sisters TV's working funny, and m Laptop charger went kaput. The thing is, that my laptop, is very old, very buggy. Internet's always off, some sites I can't get to, some sites come in weird, (especially youtube) but at least it worked. When it was plugged in to the charger. Thing is, it's always had a battery problem, and I don't even know if it's just the charger, or the Laptop as well.

And worse of all, I can't get to those documents that held my stories. Basically, I'm starting from scratch. I got a USB drive, or a portable backup with me now, and I've been using it to write this story, since I had to borrow the computer to write it. And, that isn't the end to it. Of course school is starting back up (I'm taking french for anyone who cares), and I got suspended for, get this, bringing a laser pointer to school. In addition, there are also some domestic troubles as well. I'm finding myself host to a small black family. The kid my age is alright, though rather antisocial, and the mom's a little awkward, though alright, and the three-year old is kind of nice when she's not yelling. The problem is, they don't stay that way for long. They've been here for longer than their welcome, and it's starting to show. For one thing, my sister's been staying in my room, and she's started to move in, meaning she's been bringing her toys, her clothes are in my closet, et cetera.

Writing troubles aside, I'm really burned at not being able to get the unfinished chapters I was working on. I had the begging of What's left Ater, and Heart of a Heroine, in addition to a good chunk of the second chapter of Rejoice, in addition to a few more Fallout story ideas, including a take on the Reilly's Rangers quest, and a meeting between Vaultie and Amata after all's said and done.

Anyway, as my way of apologizing I put two chapters into this one update.


	3. Civilization!

"Well, well, well, I'll be damned. TWO Vault Dwellers! Didn't expect I'd see the day."

Sam and Amata entered Megaton, and were greeted by an African American man, whose face wasn't much cleaner than Mickey's wearing some type of Leather Duster, a ten-gallon hat, and a star shaped badge on his chest with an assault rifle to his back.

"You two must be from that Vault, Vault 101. Man, I haven't seen one of those jumpsuits in a long time."

"How'd you guess?" Amata asked.

"Welcome to Megaton. I'm Lucas Simms, the Mayor, and Sheriff too, when the need arises." He said, welcoming them to the town. "I don't know why, but I like you two, you give off a good feeling. You ever need something, just holler."

"Pleasure to meet you Mr. Simms." Amata said, shaking his hand. "I'm Amata, and this is Sam."

"Hi." Sam said, shaking his hand, rather hesitantly.

"Freindly _and_ well mannered, well ain't that rare." Lucas Simms said. "Just follow the rules here, and I'm sure we'll get along just fine."

"Right. Message received." Amata said.

"Now that that's through, is there anything I can help you with?" He asked.

"Well... actually..." Sam said, rather quietly.

"Yes?" Lucas Simms said, turning to Sam who practically flinched at the man's word. Amata looked at her best friend, and understood something. Sam had lived in an extremely closed eniroment. The result was that he was incredibly shy around strangers.

"I-I'm looking for my Dad." Sam said.

"What does he look like?" The Sheriff asked.

"Here's a picture of him." Sam said, digging into his pocket, and producing a photo. "This would have been about nine years ago. He's middle aged now, about this high" He said, putting his hand about the same height as himself.

"I'm sorry, a lot of people come through here, I don't have time to keep tabs on every fire." Simms said, handing Sam back his photo who grunted in pain as he took it. "I'd ask around town."

"Well, in that case, could you point us to a doctor? My friend got hurt as we were leaving the Vault." Amata said.

"Just head down the steps here, and down to the crater, it should be to your right. Doc Church's a little gruff, but he'll fix you up." The Sheriff said.

"Thanks." Amata said, leading Sam down the steps. "We're gonna have to work on your people problem."

"What problem?" Sam asked.

"You couldn't say two words to that guy. We don't need anyone here thinking your the psychotic quiet type." Amata told him.

"Okay, let's just go stop by the clinic, and go one step at a time." Sam said.

The two kept going down the steps, and then looked up at small metal monument sitting in a small pool of water, put there as if to to testify death and destruction.

Sam grunting in pain again brought her back, and then looked to the right to see a small metal shack and headed toward that, and through the door.

"You better be dying if your in here." A gruff voice said.

"Look, my friend got shot, and he's been bleeding awhile." Amata said.

"Okay, let me take a look." A man came from out of a room, he had wearied look on his face, as well as a disapproving look in his eyes. Sam turned around to the man, and showed him his wound. "Take off your shirt." Sam looked to Amata, who nodded, and pulled down the zipper of his jumpsuit, and took off the upper part of it to reveal the Doctor his back. Meanwhile, Amata did her best not to look at his front. "I hesitate to even call this a wound."

"He was shot at!" Amata exclaimed.

"Big whoop." He said. "I can see your runaway's from that Vault. Little tip, your not supposed to bother me. If you are, you've got to be near-death. That includes cancer, mutilation, a broken spine, on top of a broken leg, or growing another head, until then, stop bothering me."

"Well, are you gonna treat him or not?"

"25 Caps." He said.

"What?" Amata asked.

"I said 25 Caps. That's my price."

"What are caps?" Amata asked.

"Caps. Cash. Moola. Deniro. Money!" He said upon seeing her blank expression. "Forgot who I was talking to. _Bottlecaps_."

"You use Bottlecaps as money?"

"Everybody does these days." He told her.

Amata dug into her pack, and pulled out 3 Bottlecaps. "These are all we've got, but we could trade for rest of it?"

"Depends on what you got. Keep that shirt off." He told Sam who was trying to put his shirt back on.

"How can you charge money for health care?" Amata asked as she rummaged through their bags.

"Well, I guess in a perfect world, health care _would_ be free. But, the walk from the Vault to here is long enough for you to know it's not a perfect world.

"Well, actually, we found this earlier, in a mailbox. We thought it was medicine, but we're not sure." She reached in Sam's bag, and showed him the red canister Sam had found.

"Not medicine, not even close." The Doctor said, taking it from her, and examining it.

"What is it?" Amata asked.

"Jet, extremely addictive drug." The Doctor said.

"Whoa." Amata said. It was a good thing that she kept Sam from using it.

"I can use this though. 17 caps. Still need five more." He told her, putting away the Jet. "Anything else."

"Umm... I guess you wouldn't be willing to trade for alcohol, would you?" She said, producing the bottle of whiskey she brought with her.

_'A bottle of Whiskey for five caps? I'll take it.'_ He thought to himself. "For such a pretty little thing like you, I'll make an exception this one time." He said.

"I'll try to sell some of the stuff we found while he's working on you, okay?" Amata said. Sam nodded. She kissed him on the cheek and headed out the door.

"Umm.... hey, can I ask you something?" Sam said as the Doctor looked over his equipment. "I'm looking for my Dad, came out of the Vault recently. Here's a picture of him. He's about my height, middle-aged."

The Doctor looked over his shoulder and at the picture for a second. "Well, if he did come here, he could take more punishment than you. Now, I have a question for you: Your not a screamer, are you?"

* * *

Amata stepped outside, and looked at the iconic tool of destruction. that stood in the center of town. She tried to ignore it, and moved on. She headed to a quaint little restuarant, and stood by the counter. She saw someone talking to someone else inside the resturant.

"I'll just be a sec Andy, just stand there and take orders." Said a woman's voice.

The man just grumbled.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for directions." Amata said.

"Oh, I guess I do look like a fucking sign post." He said to himself. He turned around to see Amata, but his demeanor changed abrubtly. "Oh, sorry about that."

"I don't really appreciate that kind of language." Amata told him.

"Yeah, well you... dress funny." He said. "Wait, I'm sorry, I've been in a bad mood today. You wanna go on a date?"

Amata was taken aback, but told him, "Sorry, just came into town with my boyfriend. Anyways I was hoping you could point me to the nearest general store."

"Oh." He said, sounding rather put off. "You'll want to see Moira, at Craterside Supply. She's above the clinic, just take the ramp up there."

"Thanks." She said, following his directions. It felt rather nice when she saying boyfriend.

She walked around the clinic, and up the ramp, at the top she was given a clear view of the center of town. The building she had been directed to, had some large conical piece of scrap on top of it, with the words Craterside Supply written on the bottom, as well as beside the door.

Amata entered only to be greeted by an acrid smoky smell, and a large amount of coughing. "Oh, don't mind the smoke!" Someone said. "It's safe to breath! Really! Oh... where'd I put that fan? Oh here it is! Right next to the Yao Guai skull..."

"Goddamnit! You don't pay me enough for this!" Another voice said.

With a click, and a whirring, a fan turned on and started funneling the smoke through a window. The person whom the first voice belonged to, whom Amata could now see was a woman, went around the building opening some more windows, and turning on the ventilation system, while the owner of the second voice was a gruff looking man leaning against the wall. As woman messed with the A/C Amata stepped up to the counter, and looked at the wares available. Most of it was junk, but one piece in the middle intrigued her. It was a modified Vault-Tec issued Vault Suit.

"Oh, hey, you must be one of those Vault Strays!" The woman said, coming up behind the counter. "Oh, I haven't seen one of you in years."

"Wow word sure travels fast here." Amata said.

"Oh, well Lucas Simms just stopped by and told me about you, you see. Anyway, I'm Moira Brown, and I run Craterside Supply. Though I do a lot of experimenting and tinkering on the side." Amata looked at the woman. She was wearing a jumpsuit of her own, but much different from hers. Her hair and skin seemed much cleaner than Lucas Simms and Doc. Church. Though there was something about the way she talked that seemed off. "Oh hey! I've been working on a book about the Wasteland, and it's be great to have the forward by a Vault Dweller, what d'you say?"

"Sure, I'd probably have a lot to say about life in the Vault." Amata said, seeing no harm in doing so.

"Great." Moira Brown said, listening with heavy anticipation.

"I was the Overseer's Daughter you see. The Overseer is the person in charge of life in the Vault. He was a little strict. Actually, he was very strict. But then again, it was enough to put up with. But today, things got worse. A lot worse. The Doctor left the Vault, and somehow he just snapped. He ordered someone to capture his assistant to see if knew anything, and since he didn't, they just beat him to death. Then he got me to see if I knew anything. I've always been best friends with his kid Sam, but since I didn't, he ordered me to be beaten. Then Sam came in. He shot the man who was hurting me, and we managed to escape. In fact we only just confessed our feelings to each other as we were leaving."

"Wow, now that's quite a story." Moira said. "I mean, you'll hear something along the lines of my Dad went psycho on me and my boyfriend every now and again, but not quite in that context."

"Yeah." Amata said, trying to keep down her emotions.

"That'll be great for the book. Hey, maybe you could help me with some of the research."

"Well, what exactly is you book gonna be about?"

"Well, like I said, it's gonna be about the Wasteland, and how to survive in it. You don't want someone dying out there because they make a mistake right? Nobody ever likes that. No. Then the just start yelling. At me. With mean, mean words. I'm still working on the title, but I've got a good feeling about it."

"Well, okay, guess I can help." Amata said. "Haven't got much else to do. It'd be nice to have something to do. I can't make a full commitment though, I'd have to clear it with Sam."

"Great, I've been looking for a new assistant for ages!" Moira said. "The first chapter is going to deal with day-to-day dangers."

"Like what?"

"Oh, you know the usual, finding food and meds, radiation, and landmines. That sort of thing."

"Um, excuse me?" Amata said. "Um, how about we start with Radiation."

"Well, it's why I need an assistant right? I've read a lot about what happened to the places that got bombed before the war, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tel Aviv, Berlin, all that, and of course the theory of mutation, and how it applies to the modern day, _but_ I've never gotten a live example, least not for too long."

"I'm sorry miss, but I'm not sure what I'd get out of getting irradiated." Amata said. For a Vault Dweller, radiation was one of your worst fears.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll have a tall glass of rad-cleansing Brahmin milk for you when you get here. Well, actually mostly lots of Rad-Away, and Rad-X, and some of my home made concoctions."

"Well... I'll just put that off until later then. Back to why I came here, I need to trade some of the things we brought with us."

"Okay, I'm open for business." Moira said.

"Alright... how much for a bottle of Whiskey?"

"Oh that'll fetch around ten Caps."

"Ten? That Doctor took it for five."

"Oh, you'll be getting that a lot, there's always gonna be someone out there trying to make a quick buck."

All in all Amata managed to scrounge up seventy caps, with the Pre-War Money making up most of it to her surprise.

"Well, it makes good kindling, you can wad it up to block leaks, and in the unlikely event that the Enclave manage to restore the world to it's former glory, you'll already have some money to spend." Moira explained.

"Well, anyway it's a rather good start." Amata said. "I just hope it can last the two of us."

"Well, if you need some caps, I heard Walter has been looking for someone to do some odd-jobs."

"Oh, thanks. Hey, wait, shouldn't you pay me for helping you with your book." Amata pointed out.

"Well, living the life of a trader, I can't always afford to pay someone in Caps. I was thinking more like chem's med's, a few unique inventions, and the occasional box of ammo."

"Basically whatever you can afford."

"You saw right through me!" Moira said. "However, I can ensure that you efforts will be worth the reward."

"Okay, oh and one last thing, like I said, the Doctor left the Vault too, we're looking for him, did you see him come through here?"

"Well, there was this one guy I hadn't seen come through. He was wearing a white coat, so I couldn't see a 101 on his back if he had it. He was going to Moriarty's Saloon when I saw him."

"Thanks. Better get going."

* * *

"DEMON DOCTOR! DEMON DOCTOR!" Sam screamed, as he clawed his way out of the clinic.

"You know what, I've changed my mind about you, come round any time." Doc Church said, standing by the door frame.

"Stay-stay back! I've got a gun, and I won't hesitate to use it! I'm a cold-blooded killer too!"

"You wouldn't be the only one." The Doctor said, returning into his clinic.

Sam looked around as the people who walked around kept walking as if her were invisible. Sam got up himself, and walked over to a small restuarant and sat down at the bar. "Tell me, it is normal when you pay a Doctor in Whiskey for him to drink it as he's fixing you up?" Sam asked no one inparticular.

"Hoooo wheee! Look it you! Now I haven't seen one of those Vault Jumpsuits in.... wow! Long time. Pretty damn good condition too." Sam turned to see who was speaking. It was a man, too old to be in his twenties, but too young to be in his fourties talking to him. We wore some kind of leather jacket with a belt across his chest with various pockets, as well as a dewrag on his head, and a goatee on his chin. And an eye-patch. The last time Sam had seen an eyepatch was in an old swashbuckler film during friday night movie time. He missed the Vault.

"I'm-I'm sorry, and you are?"

"Names Billy. Billy Creel. You call me Billy, a'ight? I know Megaton looks more like a boneyard than a town, but it ain't all bad. Take me and Maggie for instance. We make do just fine. I trade the stuff I scavenge, and Maggie keeps me no the straight and narrow." He said with a slight chuckle.

"Um... I'm sorry, w-who's Maggie?" Sam asked hesitantly.

"Hmm? Oh, sorry, kinda got ahead of myself. Maggie's nine. Sweetest little young thing. Best thing that ever happened to me too. We take care of each other. I ain't never had a daughter before, but if I did, I'd wish her to be Maggie. I took her in when Raiders killed her parents, 'bout two years ago." He said, staring off into space. "It was a pretty bad scene, small settlement up north, I'd stopped in to trade some salvage... and the whole place had been wiped out. I'd found Maggie hiding under a bed, in the same room her parents had been butchered. We've been together ever since."

"Wow." Sam said. "And I thought my life sucked."

"Aww, it ain't so bad now. One thing I've learned in my life: It can _always_ be worse. What happened to you."

"W-well, y-you see," Sam said hesitantly. "Well, you know I-I came out of the Vault. I woke up, and s-sirens were screaming. I had been told Jonas, a good friend of mine had been killed by the guards. I had to leave, o-or the same thing could happen to me. I saw people die, I almost got killed, and I _killed_ someone who was beating my best friend. And that was all this morning." Sam said. "I'm still trying to accept it, but, yeah, your right, it could be worse."

"How d'you figure." Bill asked.

"I confessed my feelings to the girl I love, and she felt the same way. One hell of a kiss..." He muttered. "A-anyway, what c-can you tell me about Megaton?"

"I have to say, it's gotta be the best town in the Capital Wasteland, and don't let anyone tell you different. And I'd know, been lot's of places. Strong walls, strong people, and strong booze!" He said, poking him in the ribs. "We've got everything you need to make a life these days."

"What about the area outside Megaton?"

"All I can say is I spent too much time out there. Beyond that, I'd rather not say."

"So.... w-w-what do you d-do around here?" Sam asked.

"Me? I deal with the Caravan's. I use to hang with them, so they cut me some slack. Helps keep the town supplied. Aside from that, I take care of Maggie. Though, I guess she _is_ getting a little old for ol' Billy to look over her shoulder. Though, I have been trying to get this ol' Motorcycle running. Been a pet project for me for a while now."

"I see." Sam said.

"Heres you water Billy." The waitress said, handing Billy a cup of water.

"Mighty appreciate this Jehny." Billy said, taking the glass. "You know, alot of people bin saying that the purifier's on it's last legs." He said before taking a big gulp. "This is proof it's just as good as ever. Ol' Walter's been keeping that thing running for decades, no reason for it to shut down now. No reason to worry. Thank's for the food." With that, Billy got up, put some bottlecaps on the counter, and left. "Later 'gater."

"By the way, the answer to your question is yes."

"Huh?" Sam turned to look at the speaker, who turned about to be none other than the waitress.

"The answer to your original question is yes 'it is normal for the Doctor to drink during an operation when you pay him in whiskey',"

"Oh, t-thanks."

"Now, I know I haven't seen you around these parts before." She said. "I'm thinking your here just to visit, right? Always have people come'n through here, trying to settle down. Anyway, if your hungry, your welcome here at the Brass Lantern at any time."

"W-well a-actually I'm looking f-for my Dad." Sam said, taking out his picture. "Th-that's him about nine y-years ago, he's a-about my height, and middle-aged."

"Aww.... your looking for your dad? That's so sweet. Did he run out on you when you were a kid?"

"No, ran out this morning. Caused a whole lot of trouble. Did you here that story I told Billy?"

"Yeah."

"That started when he left."

"Man that bites. Our parents died when we were kids. My brother Leo was the oldest, he raised Andy and me. It was hard on him, but we turned out okay. Oh, but you probably don't want to hear about that. I'm sorry, I don't think I've seen your dad."

"Thank's anyway. H-hey, what can you tell me about this place?"

"Some people hate. Leo sure does, but that's his right. Me, I want food, water, and a sturdy roof for when it actually _does_ rain. That's what we got here."

"Mhm-hmm."

"Although I guess to you, this place is rather shitty."

"I-I wouldn't say that." Sam said. "I-I mean, I should be glad that we actually found some civilization at all. A-actually, I-I heard about these Raiders, I should be glad I didn't meet any of them."

"Yeah, you probably wouldn't last two minutes against one of them. Little tip, _never, ever, ever!_ Trust one. It doesn't matter how they act, if you think you can trust one, that just makes them that more dangerous." The waitress told him.

"Wow, you sure seem to know what your talking about." Sam observed. "So you've dealt with one before."

"Yeah. I guess you can say that." She said, looking off into space.

The two stayed like that for a while in a rather uncomfortable silence.

"Here me now, I speak the truth of the past- present- and our future! Hear His call in His holy land!"

Sam turned to see whoever was talking, and found an old man clothed in rags, standing in the puddle that surrounded the monument to death.

"He calls us to the Division! He calls us to his Holy Mission! We are the descendants of those who he deemed unworthy, make your forefathers proud to call you their owns, as we back in his Glow!"

"Um... who the heck is that guy?" Sam asked.

"Oh him? That's Confessor Cromwell. Head of the local Doomsday Cult." She said, upon seeing the blank look on his face.

"Well, hasn't D-Day already come and gone?" Sam asked.

"That's kinda the point." She said. "They thought the War was some holy event, and they pray that the bomb will explode and take us out of our misery or something."

"Hmm." Sam muttered, taking it in.

"Every eye will be blinded in his glory, every ear stricken deaf by his appearance, and all of our twisted flesh wretched from our bones for his divine cause!"

"You know, he comes out every day and goes through this routine, yet I've yet to really listen to him." The Waitress said, taking away some dirty plates from another customer. "Of course that doesn't mean I'm going to any time soon." She said upon coming back. "It's bad enough that we're living in a world that we've blown up. Bad enough to be reminded about it."

"Come to us, and be Divided! Each of us wants to leave this putrid existence, no? Come to his Alter, and be God to a trillion new Worlds!"

"You know, part of me wants to know what he's talking about."

"Uh-huh."

"Though the rest of me is saying stay the heck away."

"I'd listen to the rest of you. If I were you."

"Y-yeah." Sam said, turning back to face the counter.

"There you are." Sam turned once again to see Amata walking towards him. "Feeling better." She asked, sitting in the seat that Billy Creel sat in not to long ago. She leaned over, and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Oh, hey Amata." Sam said, blushing horribly. "Oh, uh, by the way, if I get shot up again, as opposed to sending me to that Doctor there, I want you to shoot me in the head."

"You should have seen him on the way out." The Waitress said, giggling, to Sam's humiliation. "He acted as though he was clawing his way out of hell."

"The Doctor's that bad?" Amata asked, beginning to feel bad for having left Sam there.

"Well, I'm guessing he offered you some pain killers right?"

"None."

"Just as well though. He either would have used some Med-X and you wouldn't feel anything for the rest of the day, or he would have gotten you so drunk you would have fallen down from your walk over here."

"Well, I guess in retrospect it was a good thing he didn't, being underage, and all..."

The Waitress just broke out laughing, to the bewilderment of the two teens sitting at the counter, and the annoyance of the one other patron.

"Hey, can I get my food now?" The man asked. The Waitress was still laughing her head off, but when inside to fetch the customer his meal.

"What was so funny?" Sam asked. Amata just shrugged.

"Here's your food." The Wairtress said, handing the man his noodles, inbetween fits of giggles. "I'm sorry." She said to the couple. "It's just that I had my first swig of beer when I was eight. To think the two of you..."

"Well, it's just that in the Vault, drinks are hard enough to come by, and well... I can only imagine what my Father would do to me."

"Pfft, Leo told me Dad gave him his first beer."

"Really?" Amata asked shocked.

"And he was four."

"Wow." Sam muttered.

"A-anyway," Amata said, hoping to change the topic, "I'll make sure not to leave you with that Doctor anymore, okay?"

"Thanks."

"Oh, and while I was selling our stuff, the storekeeper told me she might have seen your Dad."

"She did?" Sam asked, all attention focused on her.

"Um... yeah." Amata said, almost taken aback at his change of attitude when she mentioned this. "She said she saw someone with a white coat come through. It's the best lead I've got. How about you?"

"I haven't gotten anything." Sam admitted.

"Anyway, she told me he was going to some place called Moriarty's." Amata said.

"Um, excuse me," The Waitress said, trying to rejoin the conversation. "did you say Moriatry's?"

"Yeah, you know where the place is?" Amata asked.

The waitress looked around, as though nervous someone would overhear. She leaned over the counter between the two before talking. "Look, it's not the people, it's not the workers, it's not the booze, but it's dangerous there. Whatever you do, don't trust the owner." WIth that she got back up, and leaned against the wall. "You go up the ramp that leads to the Church, and keep going up, it'll be the big building that says Moriarty on it."

"Thanks." Sam said, sheepishly.

"Well we may as well get going." Amata said.

"Th-thanks. For everything." Sam said, getting up from his stool too.

"Oh, and how about I get you something to eat next time!" She said as they left.

The two walked past the metal structure that had failed to play it's part in the end of the world, and up the monastary erected to worship it. Up they went until they reached the Saloon with the name Moriarty inscribed over it.

Sam looked leaned over the railing, and looked over the town. From this point, he could see almost everything. He looked to the horizon and saw that the lights were dimming. The ceiling to the west had been painted a deep blood red color. Fitting for such a day they had been through.

"Excuse me! Excuse me!" Sam looked to his left and saw a young woman, probably the same age as they were, running up the ramp towards them.

"I *huh* don't *huh* suppose you *huh* two are new in town, eh?" She asked, trying to catch her breath.

"Uh, yeah, we just came-" Amata started.

"Great, cause *huh-huh* I need someone to do a job for me." She said. There was some sort of look in her eye that told her she was going to have to hear the whole story before she left.

"Uh, Sam, why don't you go ahead of me?" She asked.

The boy nodded, not wanting to get into whatever was going on with the girl, and opened the door to the bar, and headed inside, not knowing what to expect.

* * *

"Aghhh.... come on you piece of junk, work! Everyday, it's the same damn thing..." Some gravely voice said, accompanied with a view thuds. Sam just kept his head down.

"I told you Gob, it ain't the radio. Enclave station come in loud and clear, it's Galaxy News, their signal's been shit lately." A woman's voice said. Sam just made his way to a barstool. A lot like the ones from the Vault, except these were covered in all kinds of dirt and grime.

"Come on... why *thud* ...won't *thud-thud*...you *thud*...work!" He said, banging on it again for emphasis. "Wait... is that? Goddamnit."

_'It could be because you keep hitting it.'_ Sam thought to himself.

"Just give it a rest Gob, your not going to get anything." The woman said again. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the woman saunter off into a corner.

"Hey there, would you like something to drink? Anything at all?" The gravely voice asked him.

"Oh, ah, not just yet- GAH!! FUCK!! What happened to YOU!?" Sam had looked up at the bartender, and was met with the most disturbing thing he could ever have imagined, the sight caused him to fall off of the stool. The bartenders face was rotting. He was the image of an old horror film they used to watch in the Vault. Parts of his flesh had peeled off, revealing the muscle, and some bone underneath, particularly around his mouth, his lips were non-existant. His nose had been reduced to but a red nub, and he could see a few nose hairs going back and forth as the man breathed. His eyes were deeply sunk into his skull, the eyes themselves were pale, and menacing. What hair he had left on his head was the texture of straw, and was plastered on here or there.

"Ah shit, you made me spill my drink you bastard!" The man who had been sitting next to him yelled.

"What? Never seen a Ghoul before?" The bartender asked.

"W-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-hat'ssss a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-....."

"Ghoul?"

"Eep." Sam managed to squeak out, nodding.

"Hey, shuffler! Get me a new drink." The man who had spilled his drink told the bartender, slapping him for emphasis.

"Here you go. _Hope you choke on it._" He said, handing him a new glass. "You okay, smoothskin?" The bartender asked, reaching over the counter to help him up. Sam looked at his hand nervously. His nails were a dirty brown, and it looked as if Sam grabbed his hand, it would slip off. After a moment of hesitation, he grabbed on to the bartender's hand, who with surprising strength, pulled him back up to his feet.

"S-s-smoothskin?" Sam asked nervously.

'From your reaction, I'm sure you noticed my face looks like ground Brahmin meat don't it?" Sam nodded. _'What's a Brahmin?'_ "Well, for those not in the know, not everyone was able to cosy up in cosy little Vault." He said, eyeing Sam's Vault Jumpsuit. "The rest of us got the light of thousand suns, and full on blast of heat and radiation. Far as I can tell, we age slower than you, a _lot_ slower. Would you believe that circa 2077 that I was about 14?" Gob looked only a few years older than Sam.

"Wow." Sam said. "Um... where you from?"

" ...place called Underworld. One of the few safe places for us. I went out into the wasteland, oh, 25 years back? I wanted to find adventure, and fortune... and I found this place."

" ...still though, can't be all that bad." Sam said. "You alive, you've got a job. That's a lot better alternative, than what happened to everyone else a few hundred years back."

Gob looked at Sam as though he had grown a second head. Given the fact that it was a post-apocolyptic wasteland, it wasn't that strange a look though. Soon though he softened, and said: "You know, your alright for a wastelander. Moriarty would have my ass in a sling if he found out, but for you, I'll risk it. Come back anytime. And you'll be getting a discount."

Sam smiled. He had just made a friend in post-apocolyptia. That was a good thing, right?

Just then Amata walked in with a sigh. "GAH!! FUCK!! What happened to YOU!?"


	4. The Saloon

Out of Disorder, into Chaos: Ch. 3

"And a fine howdy doody to you too. This gonna become a thing with you guy's?" Gob asked Sam at Amata's loud outburst.

"Could'a keep it quiet?" One of the people having a drink said.

"Sam... why are you talking to a Zombie?" Amata asked.

"Goddamnit, I'm not a Zombie." Gob recoiled.

"He's-- a- a bartender, right?" Sam said, and Gob nodded. "H-his names Gob. Gob, th-this is Amata."

"Yeah, here's the drink to prove it." Gob said, pulling a bottle of Vodka up from under the counter. "Have a seat, won't you?"

Amata, eyeing the Bartender wearily, walked over to the bar, and sat down next to Sam. "So, how did..."

"This? Happen." Gob said, indicating his face.

"Yeah."

"I was just telling this guy here the story." He said. "Well, as I was saying, not all of us got a chance to cozy up in one of those cushy vaults."

"Wait-" Amata interrupted. "you were alive back then?"

"Yeah, not that anyone here seems to appreciate it."

"Gob said he was only fourteen when it happened." Sam added.

"How is that even possible."

"Bevause I was born in 2063, Ghoul's age slower than you do, man, I wish you two came at the same time, that way I wouldn't have to repeat myselt." He lamented. "Any more of you guy's coming?" He asked, to which both shook their heads."Anyway's, the rest of us were stuck out here, and got a full on blast of heat and raidation, turned us into a pak of walking corpses. And with a face like this;" He said indicating his own visage. "Most folks don't take too kindly to us. I remember a few weeks the bombs hit, we started noticing our hair was falling out, skin too. Place began to reek of rotten meat, took us a while to realize it was us. That's what your smelling by the way, not nearly as bad as it used to be, mind you." Gob informed her. "Anyway, a few months passed, and the chaos began to settle down a little, thing's weren't back to normal, and there wasn't really a set order, but thing's began to follow a pattern." Gob paused to put his elbow and the counter, and place his fingers on the bridge of his nose, sighing.

"Are you okay?" Amata asked.

"Yeah, yeah, it's just," He looked up at Amata. "those are some powerful memories, most other people tried to forget them, man, it's been a long time since I looked back on those days. Being a slave to Moriarty's never been easy, but better than it was back then."

"Can't be all that bad." Amata said. "You're alive, and theres alot of people who can't say the same."

"Heh, don't suppose you two are related?" Gob asked. "Here, have a drink, on me, I'm sure you two have miseries to drown too." Gob said, pouring an amber liquid into two small glasses. "To the Chinese and all their fucking bombs." Gob toasted.

Sam and Amata took their glasses and gulped them down, immediately regretting doing so. "Oh my lord that's foul!" Sam exclaimed.

"What was that?" Amata asked.

"Vodka, what the hell did you think it was?"

"Honestly, I thought it was apple juice." Sam said.

"Ha-heh, I don't think i've had apple juice in eighty years, course, at that point it had turned to apple cider." Gob said.

"Hey, uh, what's up with the Radio?" Amata asked, putting down her glass.

"Mr. Moriarty says we can keep it on, it's a good radio station." Gob said. "I like hearing the DJ, Three Dog, and how he's helping fight the Good Fight."

"But what about all the static?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, while me and Sam were walking here, we found a radio station from the Government. It came in just fine." Amata said.

"That'd be the Enclave, they've been around for as long as most people here can remember, but even I can't remember when it first started broadcasting."

"Why should it be so diffucult?" Sam asked.

"Keep in mind, the airwaves have been completely filled with static ever since the skies got set on fire." Gob told him. "There's Enclave, and then there's this, GNR"

The two tried listening through the static, and manged to hear a few bars of a slow song, but not much else.

"Anyway, it hasn't always been like this, used to come in just fine, but last week, this happened." This being the static. "And honestly, I just don't like the Enclave Station."

"So, is it just music?" Amata asked.

"No, there's that, but Three Dog also gives news, tips on how to survive, most everything your not gonna get from the other guy. And of course, your gonna keep hearing about the Good Fight if you listen long enough. *sigh* If only I were a part of that, instead of being in thi dive..."

"So why don't you just leave?" Amata asked.

"You kidding me?" Gob said. "When I said I was Moriarty's slave, I meant it in a literal sense!"

"Wait, your an actual slave!? My God! How can someone possibly sell another human being!" Amata said, outraged.

"Pipe down over there!" Another patron of the bar said.

"Quite easily mind you." Gob said. "Though, thanks for counting me as a human being. I originally came from a place called Underworld, it's a Ghoul city, down in D.C. I set off here to find adventure, and fortune. And... well... I found this place. Colin sais I can't leave until I pay off my debt, the cost I went for. Of course he still charges me room and board too."

"That's awful." Amata said.

"Thanks for the sentiment." Gob said, going under the counter to retrieve some glasses. "You ever make it to Underworld, tell Carol I said hi." Gob reappeared from the counter, cleaning a shot glass. "So, what brings you two to the corner of the radioactive shithole?"

"My Dad left." Sam said. "He just left, didn't say anything to me, and the whole thing panicked everyone, guards were everywhere, fires were started, radroaches were attacking, it was chaos." Sam shook his head. "It was pretty clear everyone wanted me dead, so I had to leave, and I managed to convince Amata to come with me."

"So, I take it you two are a couple then?" He asked.

"Just recently, yes." Amata said, blushing somewhat.

"Hey, I just remembered, we were told my Dad came here." Sam said. "Middle-aged guy, my height, looks like me?"

"Oh, yeah, I remember a guy like that. Honestly, I try to keep my head, down. I tend to get smacked in the face if I look them in the face."

"Aww." Amata said.

"Talk to Moriarty, he'll know more, he just stepped outside actually." Gob told them.

"Well, I guess I should get this over with." Sam said getting up. "This shouldn't take long Amata."

* * *

Sam stepped outside of the saloon and into blinding light. He hadn't noticed, but the bight light that stood in the middle of the not-ceiling was now almost on the horizon. How did it get there? Deeming it as not important, Sam joined the elder man in a leather jacket, leaning on the rail.

"A-are you Colin Moriarty?" Sam asked.

"Speak up lad! I can barely hear what yer sayin'." The man told him, in an accent, Sam did not quite recognize.

"I asked if you were Colin Moriarty." Sam said, a little louder this time.

"Why, yes, yes I am! Though, you gone and caught me out of my element."

"G-good. That is. That's good." Sam stuttered. "Uh, I'm looking for my Dad, he looks like me, my height, middle-aged, heres an old picture of him-"

"Slow down kid, I can only take it in so fast!" Colin said, taking the picture from Sam. "My God... it's you. The little baby boy, all grown up. Persistant little bastard, ain't ya? Then and know it would seem. It's been a long time kid."

"Um, excuse me?"

"Oh, your daddy passed through here all right. Here and gone. Got what he came here for, and left. I-I'm asuming you'll do the same, correct?"

"Um, m-me and my Father were born in Vault 101." Sam said.

"Oh-ho! I-is that what your father told you? Th-that you BORN in that hole? That HE was born there as well? Oh, the lies we tell to those we love." He cackled. "Your father took you to the Vault right after you were born. To keep you safe you see. I remember it well; you stayed in my saloon after all. That's right-" He said, eyeing Sam's confused face. "Your father, his Brotherhood of Steel friend, and you, the suckling babe with nary a tit to suckle. Sorry about your mum. Truly. Ah, but life goes on. Daddy lied. Lifes full of little dissapointments. And now.. you're all grown up... and wondering where he's gone to."

"M-my Dad told me we were born in Vault 101..." Sam said in shock.

"Ahhhhh, I see. You know I heard about the brainwashin' that goes on down there. From some other fella, escaped oh' five years back. 'All hail the Overseer! We're born; in the Vault, we die in the Vault' And all that other assorted lunacy. Kid, you've got better programming than our own Deputy Weld. You'd best wise up quick. Wouldn't want anyone... takin advantage of ya. Hmm?"

"But the search party was before we were even born." Sam whispered.

"Hmm?" Moriarty said.

Sam didn't want to believe him, but he was incredibly accurate about the 'Brainwashing' as it were. And the more he thought about it, more he realized he didn't know about his Father's past. Who were his grandparents? Why did his Dad not have any pictures from his grandparents?

"Look, I just want to know where my Dad is, okay?" Sam said.

"You seem like a nice kid, so I'm going to be straight with you. Your dad was here, and know he's not. And yes, I know where he went. But what your asking me for, is information, and information is a commodity. Let's say, 100 caps, and daddy's location is yours... very reasonable, if you ask me."

"I don't have a hundred caps." Sam said simply.

"All right kid, let me help you out, for old times sake. If you don't have the caps to pay for the information, then maybe you could do me a little favor."

"Sure, I guess I don't have much of a choice.." Sam said.

"Oh, now don't say that boyo!" Moriaty said, patting him on the shoulder. "Anyway, this Junkie bitch named Silver borrowed quite a few caps from me... claimed she could start funnelling Jet, and Psycho to me for a good price. Problem is she scrammed with the loot, and set herself up somewhere in Springvale to inject herself into a stupor. Get the caps she owes me, and there yours. Well, rather they're your to pay me with." He chuckled.

* * *

"Well, I guess I should get this over with." Sam said getting up. "This shouldn't take long Amata."

With that he left. Leaving her with the undead bartender. Great.

"Hey, I think yonder gentleman in the corner is trying to get your attention." Gob told her, pointing to a man in a white suit, and a pair of dark shades and a hat helping to cover his face, sitting in the corner, waving to her. With nothing better to do, she decided to sit across from him.

"My, my, just when I had all but given up hope. My dear girl, I am very happy to make your acquaintance I- am Mr. Burke."

"Um, pleased to meet you." Amata said nervously. She felt as if the man was looking straight through her.

"Ah, manners, so nice to find them in this putrescent cesspool. I take it you are not from here. That makes you a rather important individual."

"I-it does?" Amata said rather surprised.

"Don't you see? You're a free agent! You've no ties here no interest in the affairsof this settlemet. Megaton means nothing to you!" He said as if extremely annoyed at her incompetance. After taking a short breath, he continued. "I represent certain... interests, who view this 'Megaton' as a blight on a burgeoning urban landscape. If this settlement were to... go away, why who would really care? Certainly not, you, or I..."

* * *

"Anyway kid, looks like it's getting late." Moriarty said, looking on the light now on the Horizon. Sam looked around for a moment, and realized it had suddenly grown dark. But far above him, where twinkling lights, dozens of them, more than that, all around, truly beautiful. "I guess you should find a place for your ass to sleep. I'd suggest the Common House, just over yonder. Me, I'll be heading back inside."

"Yeah, thanks..." Sam muttered distractedly. Then remembering Amata, he followed Moriarty into the saloon, only to be pushed aside by Amata herself as she herself quickly exited the building.

"Oh, there you are, come on, let's get out of here." She said urgently upon spotting him, grabbing him by the wrist, and leading him far away from Moriarty's.

Sam only had time to speak when Amata stopped behind one of the scrap buildings. When she turned around, Sam managed to see the fear in her eyes in the dim twilight. "Amata, what's wrong?" He asked.

"Look, there was a man in there." She started.

"Did he do something to you?" He asked.

"No, not exactly, we just talked... he told me the- the BOMB in the center of the town's still active!"

"The- it's WHAT!?"

"I know, I figured it must've been a dud or something, but not only can it still go off, he's planning on detonating it on purpose!"

"But.. how come he told you?"

"He..." Amata pulled out a small metal device from behind her back. "- wants me to be the one to rig it."

"And- and you agreed?" Sam exclaimed.

"Look! It looks like he's going to do it regardless, and he's offering shelter, clean beds and water, everything!"

"Who are you?" Sam asked. "What about all the peole here? Do they deserve to have their homes taken from them? That's what happened to us!"

"Look, Sam! This isn't the Vault." She said somberly. "Think about all the horrible things that are supposed to be out here! I just thought... we're not going to get another chance like this."

Sam stood silent for a minute. "I... I think we shood wait until morning. It's late, and dark." Amata blinked, and for the first time, noticed that the light that had shone so brightly before had now been extinguished. "We shood... get some sleep. Talk about everything in the morning."

* * *

Gob stood outside, enjoying the few minutes of peace he got between the time the saloon closed, and he went to sleep. He looked over the crater that was Megaton, all lit up with fairy lights strewn through the air. One of the few pretty things he had found in this town. His dead eyes passed the townscape slowly, before noticing something that he didn't usually see every night. After a while, he recognized them as the two Vault strays.

_'Poor luck for those two. If only the Common House hasn't been filled to the brim for the past two months.'_ He thought. He trotted down the ramps to where the two were sleeping. The two were huddled together for warmth, beside the clinc. He saw that the two were shivering badly. He couldn't blame them, they were unused to the desert heat, they had no way of anticipating the chilling night air.

Heading back to the saloon, he thought _'Well, I was always told to return every random act of kindness I ever come across. Damn, though, been a long time since I last had to.'_ He soon returned to the couple with a thing wool blanket, laying it on top of them. He smiled as the two unconsciously adjusted to it. For the first time in a long time, he went to bed with a smile on his face.


	5. A Day in the Wasteland

_" ...I can't tell you why I left, or where I'm going. I don't want you to follow me. God knows life in the Vault isn't perfect, but at least you'll be safe. Just knowing that will be enough to keep me going."_

Amata rustled in her sleep, as though she thought she heard something.

_"Don't mean to rush you, Doc, but I'd feel better if we got this over with."_

Amata then rustled some more, and opened her eyes, immediately regretting doing so, still not used to early dawn's light.

_"Okay. Go ahead. Goodbye. I love you."_

Amata wiped the sleep dust out of her eyes, and looked up. Sitting on a railing was her best friend, sniffing slightly. She stretched, wondering why she had so many pains and aches, and why her bed was missing. After a few seconds, she remembered yesterday.

She didn't mourn her loss, she had had enough of that. Instead she got up, and inspected the blanket that she had been sleeping with. On it was a note;

_A little reminder, the desert is as cold in the day, as it's hot in night._

_-Gob_

Amata smiled as she thought of the town's Zombie bartender. She got up, and sat next to Sam, who she could see had been crying for a bit.

He sighed. "Amata we have a lot to talk about."

She hadn't really been looking forward to this conversation. "Yeah I guess we do."

"Firstly: My Dad wasn't born in a Vault."

"What do you mean?" Amata leaned forward to see his face, as he looked forward, and not towards her.

"Moriarty. When I asked him about Dad, he claimed to recognize me, as his son, that is. Said, said that Dad came here, and I was just a baby. Must've come 'round the time the scout party came out."

"Wait, that bartender told you this?"

"Yeah."

"We don't know if this guy is being honest. For all we know, he could be a lying thieving thief!" Amata implored, as she could tell this news distresssed him. "He can tell your a Vault Dweller, just from the 101 on our back. He probably did it just to scam you."

"Amata, I've been thinking about it." Sam said calmly. "He want's me to give him money, but in order to find my Dad. He gains nothing from telling me I was born out here."

"You sure?"

"He just told me that Dad came here with me shortly after my mother died. Not much else. He said he recognized Dad when he came here. He just want's the money for where he went. And then there's my life in the Vault. The Overseer, he never liked me, or Dad. Why?"

"My Father was just being a stubborn old fool, who couldn't accept that his little girl was growing up, and getting attached to her best friend." She told him rather matter-of-factly.

"Amata, he hated me and Dad before he ever started having to worry about that. He treated us differently than anyone else in the Vault, like if we were left unchecked, we would contaminate something, it's something I've never noticed until now. And then there was my Dad. Did you ever notice, that he was the only one that talked about 'the world' and not just the Vault?"

Amata didn't say anything as she thought about this.

"He always insisted on me learning how to defend myself, to be able to stand up for myself. Nobody else in the Vault had the same views."

"Your father was just an unusual man for the Vault, that's all."

"Really?" He asked, again without turning to her. "What about my family outside of my Dad? Everyone has family that can be traced back to before the war. Not mine. Amata, I don't have any grandparents, any aunts, any uncles, I don't even have a goddamed cousin."

"You... your family could just have all... died." Amata said weakly.

"Heh, you and I both know how... unusually convenient that would be. Still though, you are right. He said that Dad came with someone else. Said they were a... a brotherhood member. Maybe we can find them, double check."

Amata said nothing, and looked at the dirt and steel path's that made up the town as it slowly got brighter. Maybe the light's were faulty, and they were still warming up.

"Oh, and we haven't even started on you yet." Sam said, glancing at Amata briefly. "What was that about the WMD?"

Amata sighed. This was gonna happen sooner or later. "He offered us money, a safe place, clean water. I just don't think we're gonna get a second chance like that."

"But... setting off a nuke?" Sam asked, now looking at her, and now Amata staring off into space.

"We could evacuate the town here, I'm sure there are other places in the world for them to go. Nobody really seems to be talking like this is the last place on earth."

"What about the Vault?"

"It survived the initial apocolypse, and a few hundred bombs were dropped then. It was designed for something like this."

"But still Amata, we are taking the homes of dozen's of people here. Who are we to play God with them?"

" ... damn it Sam, have you always been this Moral?" Amata asked, quizically, turning to see Sam in his eye.

"I'm just wondering when you stopped."

"I don't think I did." Amata said. "Maybe that's a bit of my father's ethics coming out. To get what you want, you need to do whatever necessary."

Sam wanted to remind her of what her father's ethics had done to Jonas, but thought it prudent not to.

"Come on then." Sam said, getting up, and brushing of the dirt on his suit. "If we're to get that money, we're gonna need to get started. Someone should be able to pay us to do... something."

* * *

When the morning was on the brink of closing, Sam and Amata came back to Moriarty's Saloon to review what they've learned.

The owner, Moriarty, stood in a room behind the bar, but the two could easily see him, and his distrustful glances from where they sat. Gob quietly cleaned glasses, as things were quiet in the bar for the moment.

"So, Moriarty' got you by the balls too." Gob stated.

"Y-yeah, I guess so." Sam said.

"So, how much do you need?" Gob asked.

"He said he wanted a hundred caps." Sam told them.

Gob whistled. "That's more than I supposedly made last year." Gob told them.

"W-well he told me about this one girl who used to work here. Silver?"

"Yeah, I remember her." Gob said. "Nice girl, too young for the work Moriarty made her do. She got strung out on drugs though. Moriarty didn't like that, said it was a waste of wages." Gob paused to look at the glass he was cleaning, and set it down, and picked up another. "She left one day, Moriarty's been fuming ever since. Never did find out what happened to her. Took only a few weeks until he found Nova though."

"Things really are harsh here." Amata said, looking over at Sam.

Sam ignored her. "I don't know if she'll still have enough money. What else can we do?"

"Well, last night, just before I got in here, you remember that woman, she downright begged me to deliver a letter. Said that her parents would pay us."

"Let's see, that would probably be Lucy, Lucy West." Gob told them. "She's been going all over town, looking for someone to deliver that. Been coming in here a lot too, looking for travelers. Everybody's given her the same indifference though."

"Why?" Amata asked.

"Guess no-one can be bothered. That, and-"

"And what?" Amata asked.

"Well, she seems a little too skittish about this. It does you well to be suspicious of these things." Gob put down the glass and looked at them. "Now, if I can remember right, she comes from Arefu."

"Yeah, that's what she said." Amata said.

"I heard about that place, small settlement north of here. Just follow what's left of the river, it's supposed to be on an old highway, it should be hard to miss." Gob told them.

"Yeah, that's almost exactly what she said." Amata stated. "Except, when I asked if there's anything to lookout for, she got real snarky, and said 'nothing except for the Raider's, RadScorpions, and occasional landmine'."

"What's a RadScorpion?" Sam asked.

"Ah, well, you know about a regular Scorpion, right? Well we don't have those now. Now, before the War, they were popular pets. I even had one. I called him Dominator. Well, about four months after the big bang, ol' Dom was the size of housecat." Gob leaned back and enjoyed the two Vault Dweller's wide-eyed expression. "Oh, they're actually much bigger now, most of them are as big as you and me, and then there are these real big ones the size of a car."

"There are those _things_ out there?" Amata asked.

"Eh, you can avoid them, sticking to the roads helps." Gob told them, picking up another glass to clean. "So come on, tell me, what else do you plan to do?"

"Well, also, when I was at the general store, the storekeeper said she was looking for an assistant for this research project." Amata told them.

Gob stopped, and laughed out loud. "Oh, you mean Moira! Oh lord, are you in some trouble!"

"Why, what's wrong with her?" Sam asked.

"Well, she's nice enough, but... she's a lightbulb short of a well-lit room." Gob told them, resuming his glass cleaning.

"Yeah, that's sounds about right." Amata said, with a slight smile. "She said her research included radiation sickness. And she needed a willing test subject."

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Gob said. "Just make sure to keep me out of any 'Ghoul Research', last time I was included in that, it didn't end well."

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"Let's just say I don't feel comfortable talking about it." Gob told them. "Any other jobs?"

"W-well, I asked around, and I heard that the Water Filtration system is faulty." Sam said.

"Yeah, been hearing that a lot." Gob said. "But just so long as they get the dirt out, _I'll_ be okay."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Well, most water these days has been irradiated. Bad for you folks, but guys like me aren't affected by it." Gob explained.

"Well, anyway, I went up to the guy in the plant, and he said he'd pay us if we could fix some of the pipes around town, just so long as we can find them." Sam told them. "And-"

He brought up a up a brown sack that had a lump the size of a bowling ball in it. "This _really _big, and _really_ scary guy gave me this, and asked me to deliver it to some friends of his, somewhere in Springvale."

"What's in it." Amata asked.

"Don't know, he told me not to open it." Sam said.

"I wouldn't." Gob added.

"[Speech:24%]I don't suppose you saw were my Dad went?" Sam tried.

"[FAILURE] Look I like you, but I don't know much, and what I do know, ain't worth getting my ass in a sling." Gob told them.

"[Speech:76%]Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty please?" Amata asked, giving him large pleading eyes.

"[FAILURE] Heh, that would have worked about two hundred years ago, but no. Nice try though." Gob said. "Besides, it seems like you two lovebirds have got quite a day ahead of yeh."

"Fine. One more thing," Amata added. "Where would we change clothes?"

* * *

The two stepped out of the large scrap gate of Megaton, ready to take on the world.

Clad in two identical Vault 101 security outfits, made to resemble old riot gear, and two Vault 101 security helmets. Strapped to their sides were their pistols, with their ammunition stored in pockets aroung their uniforms.

Amata had a police baton on her left side as her melee weapon, whereas Sam had his old baseball bat on his back, kept on him by an old leather belt that they had found. Sam was also keeping most of the medicenal supplies in a small first-aid kit, since he knew best how to apply it.

"Y'All. COME BACK. NOW. YE HEAR." The rusty protectron told them.

"Where'd Mickey go to?" Sam asked, as the exited.

Amata turned to see the spot where they had seen the water beggar the day before. Right now, there was only a bare desert patch.

"Dunno, maybe he went to some other settlement?" Amata suggested.

"Yeah." Sam responded. The two walked back down the path that lead to the ruins of Springvale. Not in as much in need of supplies as their first look around town, they took their time. What was left of the world wasn't much, but there was some novelty in it for those who had never before seen it. If you had only known one way of life since you had been born, then anything else, or anything new was engaging, interesting. Beautiful. No matter how bleak or desolate.

The two walked back down the trodden earth path back into the lost town of Springvale, with it's it's ruined beams reaching to the sky. Again, they attempted to comb the ruins, though they found nothing this time around.

They were also looking for possible dwellings for the illusive Silver. It wouldn't be too hard to find her, as most of the houses in Springvale were desecrated.

"Hey Amata!" Sam called out to his friend. "I found a cap! One down, one hundred to go."

Amata gave a slight chuckle. "Come on, I think I see a proper house!" Amata said.

Sam joined her at a slight ridge, that looked down the cracked road. On one side was a small insignifigant dwelling, also the only thing standing.

The couple headed towards it at a slow pace.

"So, Sam, what do you figure we do when we see Silver?" Amata asked.

"We explain the situation to her, and she will give us the caps to pay Moriarty. Of course, we're going to have to do something to pay her back." Sam said.

"Yeah, I mean in these dark times, everyones got to lend a helping hand right?" Amata said, as they came across the property.

"Yeah." Sam said, knocking on the door.

The door opened, and Sam was found himself facing a revolver.

"Who the hell are you?" The revolver asked.

"Um hello there." Amata said nervously. "I'm Amata, this is Sam."

"And what the hell are you doing here?" It asked next.

"Well, you see we're in a bit of a fix." Amata tried to explain. "You see there's this guy in the town over, Moriarty, he-"

"Turn around, start walking, and don't stop." The Revolver stated harshly.

"[Speech:60%] Whoa there, we're not here to shoot anyone." Amata said.

"[SUCCESS] Really?"

"Yes. Really." Sam said, who had his arms held high in the air, like a teller in a bank robbery.

"Fine." The revolver was lowered, and behind it, Sam saw the face of a woman. Her face was worn, and looked older than it should have been, but Sam could tell her face had once held beauty. "So what the hell are you here for?"

"Well you see, we just came out from the Vault." Amata started.

"Yeah?"

"My um, boyfriend here, and I, are looking for his father, see, and Moriarty knows where he went, and he won't tell us unless we pay him, and he suggested we find you, you are Silver, correct?"

"No, I'm Gold. Silver moved out last month." She said.

"Oh, well, if you could just point us in the right direction-"

"Of course I'm Silver, what are you, daft?" She said.

"Oh good then, well, you see he suggested we get the money from you, he says he owes you some." Amata finished.

"Oh yeah."

"Yeah."

"And how do you propose you get them from me?" Silver asked.

"C-c-could we please borrow some of the caps? P-Please?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, nice try kid, but no."

"Why not?" Amata asked.

"Why, in the fucking hell would I give Moriarty, or you, the Caps, I literally worked my ass off for? Just so you can find your deadbeat father?"

"M-my Dad's not-"

"Save it kid."

"Well what are you doing with the money?" Amata asked. "Your living in the middle of blasted wasteland."

"Getting myself so stoned so I don't remember." She answered.

"Your spending them on drugs?" Amata asked indignantly.

"Moriarty did tell me she was a junkie." Sam whispered to Amata.

"I heard that. I got damn good reason to get high." She told them.

"W- er, hmm, what is the reason?" Sam asked with a genuine sense of caring.

"Look, I made a lot mistakes landing myself into that bar to start with." Silver started, disdain obvious in her eyes. "Working for that pig... ugh. Let's just say we had a contract, I make him enough money, he let's me go, I had to sleep with the damn bastard to seal the deal. Next morning, I want my damn money, and he expects me to stay in his 'employ'. Damn Bastard. So I stole the money back from him, and set myself up here. So I ain't going back, and I'm not handing him back the caps, unless it's over my cold dead body." She said, fingering her weapon.

Amata eyed the woman nervously, and Sam sighed. "Look, alright. Keep the money, we don't need it that badly." Sam said.

"Sam!" Amata said.

"Amata, there are other ways of making money, and this woman has been through enough."

Amata sighed in defeat. "Alright."

"Wait, so you two are just gonna leave?" Silver asked.

"Yeah, we can't get the caps from you, that's plain and simple." Sam said, growing surprisingly eloquent. "And I think you deserve a repsite from what you've suffered."

To Silver it wasn't that plain and simple. Any other waster would try to steal it anyway, or kill her. She was starting to feel like an ass. Also, there was something about the couple that caught her eye, especially the clean, rugged and naive look that the boy held.

"Alright, I'm sorry for... being such a bitch. Life out here is tough. I can see you guys need some help or you're gonna get ripped to shreds." She reached into her pocket, and pulled out a few bottlecaps. "Here, it's not much, but... well it's not much."

Amata took it from her hands, and began counting it.

"Look, try not to get killed. Hate to see the only people I've opened up to become Yao-Guai meat. Hell, I don't even know why I said all that shit. Probably because you're the only ones who've ever asked." Silver lamented.

"Thanks very much Silver." Sam said.

"Yeah, try not get killed." She repeated, as the couple walked off.

"Sam, you're too nice you know that." Amata muttered as they walked away.

"I dunno." He replied.

"Well, I love that about you." She said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, causing him to blush profusely.

Soon enough they rounded another hill, and Sam saw what he was looking for.

"See Amata there it is." Sam said.

It was an elementary school. Or at least it used to be. The easiest way to tell was the big red sign that exclaimed 'SPRINGVALE ELEMENTARY', and behind that lay several twisted pieces of wood that they assumed must have been 'trees'. From here the two could see what was left of a river bank, where the schools cracked playground pavement lay.

The building was old grey and crumbling, the roof was completely gone, however a pair of double doors lay still closed infront of what must have been an old bus ramp.

The two walked towards the school at a slow pace.

"I hope this pays something." Amata said.

"Well if not, I'm sure there's more stuff to do back at Megaton." With that Sam stopped walking when a bullet hit the ground infront of him. "Oh that can't be good." Sam muttered.

Over the broken wall of the school they saw a dirty man half dressed aiming a rifle at them, and laughing his head off.

"looky what we found here! A couple of no good dirty wasters! Guess what we're gonna do!"

"Um, hello." Amata said. "We're here to deliver a package."

"Oh are you now?" He said. "Butch, Kang get out here, get these wasters inside, so's we can put them to work!"

With that, the two waited on the road, while the man aimed his rifle at him.

"Why can't we all get along?" Sam asked.

"Is it me, or is the common way of greeting someone is to shoot at them." Amata responded.

Soon enough, two more people cam out from the double doors that went into the school opened, out of it, one man, one woman, both half dressed in bare clothes and armor, positively filthy, and with wild crazy looks in their eyes, came up to the couple. The man held a pistol in his hand, the other held an SMG.

"Um hello there." Amata said.

"Stuff it bitch." The woman replied.

"Excuse me?" Amata asked, deeply insulted.

The man fired a shot into the air to silence them.

"You keep moving, don't stop." He snarled at them.

The two complied, walking down the road, with guns pointed at their backs. The turned around the building, walking over old rubble, and entered the back of the school, through a giant gap in the wall that exposed the innards of the building to the sky.

Walking along the ruined floors that had now become balconies, were more of these mad men with guns, eyeing like you would a threat, or a peice of meat.

"Boss is gonna fun with you." The man muttered into Amata's ear. The walked down a dirt path that lead into what what would have been the basement, before coming across a second set of doors. Sam looked up at the sky wondering how long it would be before he saw the bright light again, before being shoved in by a gun to his back.

* * *

Being lead through dark claustrophobic hallways, with lewd and disgraceful grafiti adornin g the walls admidst hlepful learning reminders, they were pushed until they came acoss a man and a woman indulging in indecent acts upon a dirty matress that lay on the floor.

"Hey boss, sorry to interrupt your fun time, but we got a couple of wasters, and looks like they got a good stash."

With that the man stopped what he was doing, and looked at the two, with ugly permanantly etched into his face.

"So, what you two got that I want?" He demanded.

"W-w-w-w-w-w-el-l-l-l y-y-y-y-you s-s-ss-see-"

"GODDAMNIT SPEAK UP!" He roared.

"We were supposed to deliver a package." Amata said bravely.

"Well don't we have a pretty one here." He said. "What is it you're supposed to bring us then, infact, tell us what shithead would dare fuck with a raider."

Sam shivered as he recalled Mickey's discription of the raiders, as he pulled out a small soggy sack for the intimidating man in front of him.

He angrily grabbed it from him, and pulled off the note from it.

"To Adolph." He read. "This is a gift from me to you, so you remember to stay the fuck away from me. Love Jericho."

With that he reached into the sack, and pulled, by the hair, the bloody dismembered head of a human being, a sickly blood red clown nose adorning it's face.

"Holy goddamn shit, it's Boppo!" He exclaimed. "That goddamn bastard."

"Well, now that that's taken care of." Amata. "I guess we should just leave then, eh?"

"Oh hell no." He said. "You-" He said, pointing to Sam. "You are gonna work. Boys, take him to the library." With that, two more of the raiders grabbed him by the arms, and dragged him off. Amata tried to go after him, but was pulled back while the leader laughed evilly.

Sam was walking towards his death, he just knew it. It figures, only a day outside the safety of the Vault, and he was going to die.

* * *

The Raiders walked down through the school once more, Sam's own memories of elementary came to his mind unbidden.

"Okay, Kang, you go in with the newbie, make sure he doesn't try anything funny." One of them said, as they removed all of Sam's possessions.

"Fine then, but I keep the shiny pistol." He said, taking his 10mm.

Sam gulped, as they packed explosives onto his body, not much, just some military grade grenades.

With that, the raider that must have been Kang pocketed Sam's pistol, and drew his own sawed off shotgun. The other, meanwhile, unlocked the doors to the library.

Sam saw a giant hole in the middle of the floor, that lead into an unnatural cave formation. He was walked slowly into, Sam having difficulty adjusting to the unneven footing.

"Heh, keep moving ant-bait." The raider said, as Sam was slowing.

He kept to the wooden paths, and under the supports, they reminded him of mines he had seen in western movies, but wondered what they could possibly mine here. Then he heard it, was this odd, insistent odd mechanical-esque sound, yet he couldn't fathom it coming from a machine.

That's when he saw it, an ant, just like in his science textbooks. The thing was, the ant was Giant. It was half the size of a man, and the ugliest/scariest thing he had seen in his entire life. He knew a simple BB gun wouldn't be enough to kill this insectoid monstrosity.

*Bang-Bang* rang through his ears, the sound echoing through the tunnels. The Raider behind him reloaded his gun, thouroughly unimpressed by radiated monstrosity.

"Keep moving shit-bag." He yelled.

Sam moved on, not knowing what to do moved on once more, it seemed it was all he could do. Soon enough the manmade structures stopped, and the Raider grabbed one of the lamps, and they pressed on, the tunnels becoming more and more irregular.

He heard more of that sound. Soon enough it was incessant. He felt the hairs on his neck stand up, he got goosebumps, and all he could do was march to his death.

The raider killed a few more of those Giant Ants, most of them smaller than the first one he encountered, all of them going down in one shot.

Eventually, the stopped in antechamber. This must have been the center of the nest, as to his left were dozens upon dozens of small white sacs that must have been ant eggs. The raider proceeded to start stomping on them, swearing profusely. "That was for Jenkins you dirty sons of whores."

"Umm... I-I d-don't think you sh-sh-sshould be doing that." Sam muttered

"Shut the fuck up you!" He yelled aiming his gun at him.

Sam kept quiet, but the sounds, they got louder, it was driving him insane.

Then they came through craks in the all from the floor, the ceiling, everywhere. "Guy, they're here! Tons of them!"

"Shit!" He started shooting wildly with his shotgun, the sounds reverberating through cavern, deafening Sam, who stood around useless, as he had no weapon. Trying to keep his cool, he grabbed a grenade from his belt and threw it at a group of them, blowing them to smithereens, but hardly making a dent in the population.

"Take your shitty gun back!" He said, throwing Sam his pistol back. Sam caught it, and aimed it, and fired one shot after another, killing an ant with each shot.

He knew he only had twelve shots, and many more ants, but the Raider was helping with that. He came down to his last shot, and he aimed it for an Ant that was leaping at the raider, but instead of a bang, he got a click.

He then realized the pistol didn't have a full magazine of twelve, he used a shot when he killed Officer Mack. So the giant Ant managed to attack him. The raider blew it's head off, but was overwhelmed by the Ants, and Sam knew he would be next.

He spotted an Assault rifle at his feet, along with some magazines, three to be specific. He prayed that if his years of watching action movies, and his gun obsession would ever pay off that it would be today.

He loaded the gun into the gun and fired. It stuttered, it sputtered, but it fired all the same. He only stopped to load the next magazine into the gun.

Eventually he ran out bullets, but thankfully, he also ran out of Ants.

Sam stood up, panting, a mountain of ant corpses before him. Sam looked to his feet again, and saw several rotting corpses, people these raiders have forced into here, and had made there last stand here as well. He examined the rifle, he could tell it was in horrible condition, and without any ammo, or a convenient way to carry it, it would be useless, so he left it. He went to the Raider, kicking the ant corpses off of him, trying not to get sick.

The raider's body and face were scarred beyond recognition, you didn't need medical training to know he was dead, the fact that Sam did only made it harder to bear. Sam had felt, if only for a few moments, a sense of comraderie between them. Sam grabbed his gun, and checked it, it only had one shell left in it, and none left on his body.

Sam worked back to the huge antechamber, and tried not to throw up. He felt sick to his stomach. He tried to clear his mind, and weigh his options.

"Guns? Ants. Guns? Ants. Ants? Guns. Ants?"

* * *

Amata watched as the leader put on bloodied clown nose on his own face.

They had tied her up, and left her in this mans' den of iniquity, which was actually the end of a hallway with one end blocked off by rubble. She shuddered to think what was to happen to her, but at the same time she dispaired for Sam.

"Better get comfie their Girly-Girl." The man said. "Soon enough you'll be heading to Paradise Falls, and from there... well I hope you get comfie here."

"What did you do to my boyfriend?" Amata asked.

"Heh, heh, heh." He chuckled. "I don't know if you know." He began. "But not so far from here there's one of those damn Vaults, untouched. Now we got a pretty sweet gig, knock down some caravans, and just don't piss off that Sherriff or that damn turncoat Jericho. But imagine what's in one of those damn Vaults? So, we're gonna blow our way into it. Thing is, there's a giant Ant nest right under this place. So we've just going to send in you waster's to blow em up till we reach the damn place."

"That's Horrible!" Amata exclaimed.

"Oh don't worry, you're to pretty to blow up, so we're gonna enjoy you a little first." He said.

Amata shuddered once more. She made up her mind then and there. She was going to get out from here if it was the last thing she did.

* * *

Sam crawled through the tunnels shotgun first. God must have been watching him, as he had yet to find any ants. That or he had already killed them all.

Eventually the tunnel widened, and he could stand. He followed along the tunnels nervously, keeping low.

And that's when he saw it.

"Sweet holy virgin mother of jesus christ on a sunday morning." He muttered.

It was a queen, it must have been. It's abodmen must have been the size of a bus, it's head alone the size of a man, it's useless wings lying at it's sides.

Sam thought, what to do, what to do. He took a second look, and he noticed stockpiles of explosives. The Ants must have moved in here after the Raiders set up shop. Sam stopped to think. He had a fair grasp on the concept of explosives, if he could set it off, he could probably kill the queen, and he knew enough about Ants to know that if he killed her, the rest would go crazy and begin killing eachother.

He took a breath, pulled a grenade from his chest, pulled the pin, wound up the pitch, and threw.

* * *

"Holy Fuck!" The man with the bloody nose shrieked, ceasing his tirade. "Someone tell me what the Fuck that was!"

Amata cowered in the corner, managing to get one of her wrists free, but keeping it concealed behind her back. Step one accomplished, now for step two...

"Boss, you want to deal with this yourself?" One of the Raiders, who was in a gas mask asked.

"And leave this peice of ass behind for someone else to fuck, hell no!" He screamed, wielding a pistol around wildly. "You and Ken find Tia and Scrappy, find out what the fuck happened!"

* * *

Sam kept crawling, he had gone through another ant tunnel, and found his way into the schools decrepit ventalation system. He found a grate that led to the open hallway bellow.

"Man did you see all those ant bodies in there?"

"Yeah, Kang's there too."

"Shit man, that fucker still owes me twenty caps."

"Can't collect on the dead dipstick."

"What happened to the waster?"

"I dunno, ants must have eaten him."

"You think they took out enough for us to keep going?"

"Not with that Queen there."

"What you so scared about a damn ant Queen for?"

"Have you seen one of those things? Damn scary dude."

"Yeah I've seen one, fuckin easy dude, I ain't afraid of no bugs."

"You're full of shit dude." The other said.

"What you say?" The other said. Sam saw him draw a gun.

"I said, you're full of-"

*Bang*

"You know, now that I think about it, you owe me some caps too.

Sam shuddered, and kept on, he had too. He was getting out of here, and with Amata too.

* * *

With a grunt he landed in the kitchen, quickly took in his surroundings. On the wall were macabre splashes of blood, making a facade of the horrible over the cheery reminders of learning that the students once used.

On the table and counters were grimy and disgusting eating utensils placed next to grody and filthy meals. On one table, something that caught his attention, as some kind of animal. He assumed it must have been a product of wasteland radiation, as he had never seeen it in a book from the vault. It was a pale thing, the size of a dog, four limbs, and a head, but similarities stopped there. It had a giant set of buck teeth, each the size of a playing card, and two black beady eyes. It looked like it was being served for meat, as it's insides were split open, and blood was pouring out from it.

Sam eyed a kitchen knife of the table. He grabbed, and tried to wipe off some of the blood. It blade was sharp, and it would serve it's purpose.

Kinge in hand, shotgun in the other, he crept through the broken doorframe into a decrepit hallway. Overturned desks, and broken lockers filled the place, with mounds of rubble forming the ground. Facades of blood, and grotesque grafiti adorned the walls.

Sam spotted a raider down the hallway, and thanked the dim lighting that plagued this cursed place, and tried to sneak towards them. However, he sucked at sneaking.

"Shit what the fuck are you!" He yelled.

The raider shot at Sam, who immediatly took cover behind a desk. Sam took a deep breath. Right now he wasn't here. He was an American super agent. He was neck deep into Chinese territory. If he was going to make it back home, he was going to have to kill some of the these godless communists. Sam gripped tightly, and blasted the raider square in the chest. The half-dressed druggie fell to the ground.

Sam smiled brightly and let off a yell. The kick to that gun was amazing!

"Hey over here!" Sam's face fell.

He grabbed the revolver his fallen foe had used, and rushed towards an old blackboard that had a lewd drawing on it. He realized this was poor cover, when part of the blackboard was blasted away by a bullet.

"He killed Scrappy!" The woman said.

"Shit Tia, let's kill this damn bastard!"

Sam took a breath, and popped out of cover, took two shots at the man without a shirt, one to the chest, one to the head, and three to the woman who a tire strapped to her shoulder.

With them down, Sam checked his current gun. No ammo. He checked the bodies, messy work, but necessary. The person who owned the revolver had three magazines on them, the other two bodies happened to have been using 10mm pistols, so a lot more ammo for him.

Sam tried to think up his next move. He tried to construe a mental map in his head. Following it, took a right down the hallway, and came across an angry man with an assault rifle.

Sam ran into an adjacent bathroom for cover. He gripped his 10mm pistol, and made sure to reload it. The man burst into the bathroom with him, Sam gripped his knife and pluged it deep into the man's chest, kicking the body away, it's face landing in the urinal.

Sam checked his body, the man had been using a sawed off shotgun like the man who followed him into the basement, so he had several shotgun shells on his body.

Sam reloaded both his pistol and his shotgun, both guns in hands, he exited the smelly bathroom, and headed down the cursed hallway once more. He passed a few rooms, the raiders didn't seem to notice the gunshots from before. He passed a few classrooms that were converted into sleeping rooms, one supply room that failed to yield any ammo.

What disgusted him the most, was at the end of that destroyed hallway, there was a cage, or a jail cell. In it were a dozen miniature, child-size skeletons. Whether they had been there from before the war of not, Sam didn't know. All he knew was that he had to press on.

He headed up the stairs, trying to keep quiet.

Reaching the top of the staircase, he peered around the doorframe. The way seemed to be clear for the moment. The room seemed to be an old teachers conference room, though half the walls were caved in, leading to some kind of library. Further in that library the shelves were stacked up like barriers.

"Shit where is everyone!" Sam heard someone scream. He ducked behind the makeshift barriers. Sam peeked over the barrier, saw a man, Sam simply blasted him away with the shotgun. However, he noticed a few more of them, so he grabbed one of the grenades from his belt, and threw it over the edge, waiting for the bang.

*BANG*

Then he noticed the dogs. Sam quickly tried to reload his gun when one of them leapt for his throat. Sam shot it a few times, and the thing gangly thing went down. Sam reloaded his pistol, and with both guns full, he marched on.

He came down an new hallway, just as trashed as the last.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Sam turned around, and saw an angry man wearing spiked armor, and a red clown nose, wielding an assault rifle.

"You, you're the guy in charge." Sam said.

"Yeah, damn well right I am." He said. "How the hell did you survive the damn Ants."

"I killed them." Sam said bravely.

"I see, well, you know what? It's time for me to kill you!" But before the man could fire a shot, Sam heard another shot being fired, and saw a dot of red appear between his eyes, before he crumpled. Behind him, he saw Amata, holding a pistol of her own.

She sighed, and looked Sam in the eye. "Let's go." She said. Sam said nothing as the left the damned hallway, and tried to look for an exit.

"I got the rest of our stuff, they stashed it right next to me." She said, as they went back into the library.

"I see."

"They were, you're never going to believe this, they wanted to dig they're way into the Vault." She said, as they entered the teachers loungue. "What was it that they made you do?"

"Strapped some grenades to my chest." He said, indicating his belt. "They sent me into the tunnels, and hoped I'd just blow something up."

"That's horrible." Amata said, concerned for her boyfriend. They headed down the stairs next.

"Yeah, well it wasn't the first time they had done it, I found some bodies down there, one of them had an assault rifle, that I used. But you see, the- there was an Ant nest. You know from our science textbooks. Except they were giant. Remember that picture from the field reports? There were dozen's of them."

"Oh Sam, that must have been awful!" She doted on her boyfriend.

"No more awful than what you went through." He said.

"It wasn't that bad." She said, trying to be tough. "He just swore and ranted a lot."

Sam didn't believe her, but didn't say anything. The walked through the halls until they found an exit, in the middle of the room was another gigantic cage in it were abused bodies, skeletons, one of them held a man with his head cut off, his limbs tied to the ends of a matress. They ignored the sight, and just opened the doors.

They saw stars.

* * *

From there they marched back through the town. It appeared crickets were still alive, as they could hear their signature chirping as they walked.

"So, we took out a marauding band of slavers, and saved the Vault." Amata tried to say cheerfully.

"No, not really." Sam said. "The Vault is in that direction. They were digging towards the river."

"Oh."

"But we can tell people that we saved the Vault."

"Yeah." With that, they fell silent for a few moments. They caught sight of the scrap pile that was Megaton, and headed toward it.

"What do you think is going on in there?" Sam asked.

"I don't know." Amata sighed. "I guess at the very least they'll have the Radroach infestation solved."

"Yeah."

They reached the great scrap gates of Megaton. The lone guard 'clinged' his rifle on the rail, and the doors opened.

* * *

"So, I guess we're done for the day?" Amata said, as they walked down the dirt and scrap path that lead to the middle of town.

Sam yawned, and looked at the large WMD that lay at the center of the town.

"No, Amata, we're not done."


	6. A Lazy Day

*Knock-Knock-Knock* Moira Brown shifted slightly in her sleep.

*Knock-Knock-Knock* "No, no, I promise there won't be any problems with the child." Moira muttered.

*Knock-Knock-Knock* "Well, she might be green..."

*Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock* "Goddamnit lady, get the door!" Moira's Mercenary yelled.

"Huh?" Moira said, getting up. *Knock-Knock-Knock* "Who is it?" She asked.

"Just get the door already!" The mercenary said.

Moira got out from her bed, and headed downstairs towards the door. "I'm sorry, we're closed right now, please come back around sevenish." Moira said, as she opened the door.

"Gangway!" Someone said, barging. The someone came with a body slung over their shoulder. "Come on Sam, you can make it!"

"Um, I'm sorry, what's going on?" Moira asked.

"You wanted to cure someone of radiation poisoning, here they are!" The person said, sitting the body in a chair. Moira then recognized the person, it was the Vault Dweller from earlier, and the body in the matching 101 Vault Suit, that she was carrying, must of been her boyfriend. The boyfriend in question vomited on the floor, and then the vomit began to glow.

"Look, he was doing something stupid around that dead bomb in the middle of town, and- WHY THE HELL ARE YOU NAKED?"

"I sleep in the nude." Moira answered, rubbing her eyes. "What's the problem?" She asked.

"You're naked! It's shameful!" Amata said.

"I meant with your boyfriend." Moira said, pointing the young man puking in the back of the store.

"He's got radiation sickness, it's off the charts!" Amata said.

"Well, help me get him on the counter." Moira said, heading over to the young man. Amata helped Sam limp over to Moira's countertop, and helped lay him on it.

"Alright, luckily, I have my remedies already prepared." Moira said, reaching beneath her counter, and pulling out a few bottles of glowing liquid. "Hmm, I don't think I've had an opportunity to test these out on someone with such a serious case of Radiation poisoning before." She mused.

**"What'd she say Amata?" **Sam asked.

"Oh nothing sweetey." Amata said.

"Alright, it's best if I do this immediately." Amata said. "I'm going to need you to stay very still for me, ok?"

**"Ok." **

Amata almost told her to put some clothes on before continuing, but bit her tongue.

"Before we start, is there any insight you could give us about your condition, any thoughts?" Moira asked.

**"**[Perception] **I think if I listen closely, I can hear my genes screaming out in pain." **Sam said.

"Oh poor thing, he's experiencing delusions." Moira said, preparing her concoctions for him. "Come on, let's get started."

* * *

Amata paced back and forth, back and forth, back and forth in the store. The process of curing Sam's Radiation poisoning lasted until the lights came back on outside. Despite her urges to help in any way possible, there wasn't much to be done, just to let Moira's homemade remedies work their Magic, and let Moira check up on him, and take notes.

So Moira waited for hours for Sam to wake up, during which Amata became very familiar with the entirety of Craterside Supply, Moira finally put on some clothes, and her Mercenary regained his ability to concentrate.

"So," He said, after the 101st time she paced around the small store. "Your boyfriend gets turned into a human glow-lamp, and you bring him to the town crazy."

"We tried taking him to the Doctor, but he turned us out because we didn't have any money." Amata said. "So with no other option, I brought him here."

"Hmm..." The Mercenary looked as if he was in deep thought.

"Does she do crazy stuff often?" Amata asked.

"Yep."

"Is it worth what she pays?"

"Not in the least." He said.

"So why don't you leave?" Amata asked. The mercenary simply made a funny face. "Is it because she sleeps in the nude?" She asked dryly.

"I'll admit that's a perk." He said with a smile.

"You disgust me." Amata said, resuming her pacing.

"Yeah, you and every other woman I've ever met." The Mercenary said.

"Oh, there you are!" Moira said, coming into the back of the store where Amata was pacing. "I think he's woken up, and he's asking for you."

Amata quickly ran to the storefront, and found Sam still lying on the counter, staring at the ceiling.

"Sam are you okay?" Amata asked worriedly.

"Yeah. I think." Sam said, in a strangely calm voice.

"Is he ok?" Amata asked.

"Well, he's probably still a little out of it because of the drugs-"

"Drugs?"

"I mean medicine!" Moira said hastily. "Not really." She said quietly.

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"You did something stupid." Amata said, hugging him gently.

"I think I saw Angels Amata. One of them was naked." Sam said.

"Oh, that's nice." Amata said, shooting a dirty look at Moira. "But everything's back to normal now."

"Well..."

"What did you do?" Amata asked Moira, in a very angry tone of voice that scared the storeowner.

"There might have been a teeny tiny um... mutation." Moira said. "But only a little one!"

"I'm a mutant?" Sam asked the ceiling.

"But it seems to be benign!" Moira said, almost melting under Amata's hateful glares. "From what can I tell, he'll heal at a small rate whenever subjected to intense radiation poisoning."

"Which we are supposed to avoid like the plague." Amata stated.

"I'm a mutant." Sam said with a sense of certainty.

"If it'll make it up to, I'll give you some of the professional radiation medicine I have, for free!" Moira brought out a couple of small pill bottles labeled Rad-X, and a small bag of glowing liquid labeled RadAway. "And, I'll even give you that armored Vault Suit to for free, I haven't been using it, and I'll even make one for your boyfriend too, how does that sound? It'll be my way of saying I'm sorry for twisting his DNA like a kitten with a ball of yarn."

-[ [New Perk!] Rad Regeneration: Whenever subjected to Advanced Radiation Poisoning, Sam will regrow crippled limbs!]-

"Amata, is she crazy?" Sam asked.

"Yes Sam she's crazy." Amata said in a comforting voice.

"Oh." Sam said, still staring at the ceiling.

"So I guess you want to stop helping me write my book, huh?" Moira asked.

"You're writing a book?" Sam asked.

"Yeah." Moira said.

"What's it about?"

"Oh, it's about surviving in the wasteland." She answered. "I wanted a way of helping people, and I thought a book would be the best way to do it."

"That sounds nice." Sam said. "Doesn't that seem nice Amata?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"We should help her Amata." Sam said.

"I don't really think that's a good idea." Amata told him.

"What else do you need help with?" Sam asked.

"Well, I also need experience with severe injuries, and I need someone with firsthand experience disarming mines. There's a place north of here called Minefield that's loaded with mines, and I was hoping maybe someone could go check it out, and maybe bring one back for me."

"Now doesn't that sound nice Amata?" Sam said.

"Yes, absolutely." Amata said. "Is this going to last for long?" She asked Moira.

"Oh, maybe say in a... half hour... maybe..."

Amata sighed.

* * *

The two waited out most of the effects of Moira's 'medicine' outside of Craterside Supplies, mostly watching people pass by, as the great big light in the sky got brighter, and listening to many of Sam's lucid monologues.

"The lights getting brighter." Sam noted.

"Yeah, odd isn't it." Amata said.

"Someone needs to fix it." Sam said. "Who do think is the Job to do that?"

"I don't know."

"God maybe? That would make sense I think." Sam said. "I want to listen to music." He stated. He fiddled with his pip-boy with half a minute, and a weak station that was mostly static.

_"Helloo- bzzt -dren.- bzzt bzzt - sorr- bzzt -weak sig- bzzt -time for- bzzt bzzt bzzt bzzt..."_

Sam turned off his pip-boy, and muttered something about lousy music, and went back to staring off into the scrap buildings.

"I'm happy Amata." Sam stated.

"Oh really, why's that?" Amata asked, trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes.

"I'm alive." He stated. "And you're with me. But mostly I'm happy that I'm alive. And everyone else too, they're alive. Hey Amata, did you know why I did it?"

"Did what?"

"That thing with the-" He gestured vaguely towards the center of town.

"The Bomb?"

"Yeah."

"No." Amata said softly.

"Neither do I." He said. "But I'm happy. I think Dad would be happy too."

"Yeah."

"You shouldn't be with me Amata." Sam said after a pause.

"Why not?" Amata asked. "We're supposed to be in love, right?"

"Yeah. But I'm a killer." Sam said. "I've killed five people in cold blood. And then there was this last, insane clown guy, I just looked at him, and boom, his head blew up. I'm dangerous."

"You are not." Amata said, hugging him. "You're the kindest man I've ever met. And I'm in love with you, so you're not getting rid of me."

"Really?"

"Yes. Really."

"Oh... I'm happy." Sam said. And then after a while, he said: "But you're in love with a mutant."

"A cute mutant." Amata said.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"What do you think should we do?" Sam asked after a while.

"About what?"

"I don't know." Sam said. "We need money."

"I'm sure we can ask around." Amata suggested.

"No more clown heads though." Sam said. "Clowns are scary... I've decided."

* * *

"Hello there." Moira Brown said, as she finished her latest experiment, and the Vault Duo entered. "Is your boyfriend feeling better?"

"Yeah, sorta... maybe." Sam said, taking a particular interest in the floor.

"He's a little shy around new people." Amata told her.

"It's okay sweetie, I don't bite." Moira said sweetly.

"Really?" Sam asked.

"Yes. Really."

"Okay." Sam said without much conviction.

"So... uh... what happened?" Moira asked.

Sam and Amata took a look at each other, before starting their story.

"Well, we started out going back into the old town, Springvale." Sam began.

"We need some money." Amata continued.

"I'm uh... looking for my Dad, and this man called Moriarty seems to be the only person who knows where he's gone. But he won't tell me where without a price."

"So we went to an old employee of his in Springvale, and made a delivery for this man, who was it?"

"I didn't get his name." Sam said.

"Well, we went to this old schoolhouse, and got kidnapped by some Raiders." Amata said.

"Oh, you poor things. Come sit down, and continue with your story." She got a pair of old chairs, and centered them around a scavenged table, and they all sat down.

"We escaped. Sam managed to uh... get the upper hand on them." Amata said, as Sam nodded. "And we escaped. It was pretty late I think, when we got back. But... uh..." Amata glanced at Sam, hoping he could continue the story, but he stayed silent. "We messed around with that... thing... in the center of town."

"The bomb?" Moira asked, slightly shocked.

"Yeah." Sam admitted. "I-I f-figured it was the right thing to do... I mean... i-it scared the hell out of me... I mean just imagine, having grown up in a Vault... but a-a-anyway, I figured with a... Vault education and all, and I could do it..."

"And, we did." Amata said. "The things finally dead."

"Awww... all those poor people in the church..." Moira said.

"Huh? Come again?" Amata asked.

"Well, you know the church in town?" Moira asked. "How about Confessor Cromwell, the guy who stands in the puddle all day, and-"

"Rants?" Amata asked.

"Well... yes. Anyway, he's the head of the church." Moira explained. "The Children of Atom. They worship the bomb."

Amata took a few seconds to collect herself, and choose he words before responding. "What the Hell?"

"They're a peaceful religion." Amata said. "Even I'll admit they're a little kooky, but they're not that bad. They give a lot of help to refugees."

"That sounds nice." Sam said.

"Well, they might get awful angry at you for disarming it, so we'll just keep this our little secret, okay?"

"Okay." Amata said.

"You know, I actually I think Lucas Simms was thinking of hiring someone to disarm it, maybe he could pay you?"

"Really?" Amata asked.

"Yeah, he's been quiet about it, so as not to upset the church, but he asked me if I could do it."

"You couldn't?" Sam asked.

"I'm sure I could, but I didn't want all those church people to get mad at me." Moira said. "And honestly, I'm not too sure that Lucas Simms trusts me that much."

"Really now?" Amata said.

"So what are you going to do now?" Moira asked.

"I think we'll take a break." Amata said. "A lot has happened in the last couple days, I'd like to get everything in order before we do whatever next life threatening thing we do."

"Tell you what, you go relax, and I'll put in a good word for you with the Sherriff, and I'll have that extra armored Vault Suit ready for you by tonight. What do you think?"

"That sounds good." Sam admitted.

* * *

"You did what now?" Gob rasped, as he served the two Vault Dwellers sipped their water.

"We-"

"I heard you, but bejeezus are you stupid." Gob commented. "Oh well, could have gone worse, you coulda ended up with a mug like mine."

"He's not, is he?" Amata asked.

"Nah." Gob said. "Cromwell might, but I don't think you will. I ain't a scientist, but the doc from Underworld said something about being covered in radiation for several weeks or something."

"That's good." Sam said.

"So you couldn't get the caps from Silver then?" He asked.

"It seemed like she needed it more than we did." Sam said. Gob saw the exasperated look in Amata's eyes.

"Well the 'boss' ain't gonna pleased when you tell him that. Still, as long as you get him the money, I don't think he'll care how, or how long it takes you to get it. Any other plans for the day?"

"Well we delivered that package; I would certainly like something for all that effort." Amata said, taking a glance over her shoulder.

"I think I might know the guy, describe him to me."

"Uh, older guy, bald, had a beard. Was wearing leather with a metal plate on the shoulder, and an assault rifle on his back. Swore an awful lot." Sam said.

"Yeah, that would be Jericho." Gob said.

"Odd name." Amata said.

"Yeah, well he's an ex-raider, so it could have been worse." Gob muttered.

"He's- he's one of them?" Amata asked.

"Keep it down sister." Gob shushed her. "Yeah. He came and settled down here around a decade ago. If you'll pardon my French, he's a goddamned bastard, but the town tolerates him because he's a, well, he's kinda a badass. It's just him, Stockholm, the Sheriff and the town bots that keep order here."

"No police?" Sam asked.

"Police are the kind of things that are prevalent in places that have civilization and progress. Megaton has neither of these things. Anyway, I suggest that if you intend to get anything from him, you do it in place that has lots of witness's, er, people. Can't have my two new friends killed can I?"

"Eh heh, yeah, sure." Amata said, taking a look behind her.

"You okay? That's the fifth time you've done that." Gob said.

"Um, do you remember the man in the white business suit that was in here last time?"

"You mean the creepy guy who was glaring at everything? Left before I got up this morning." Gob said.

"Oh."

"Any other plans for the daring duo?" Gob asked.

"Just planning for a lazy day." Sam said.

* * *

The two then proceeded to look for Jericho, hoping to receive some compensation for all the suffering endured at Springvale elementary. What they got was a lot of swearing.

"Are you fucking shitting me or something?" He asked.

Sam shut down, so Amata took over. "You never said anything about taking that 'package' of yours would be dangerous, or that we would be bringing to a bunch of drug abusing fiends."

"Look toots, why don't you get off your fucking high horse, head back home, and start baking some cookies or something."

"I never took a cooking class for your information." Amata shot back.

"Are you shitting me? Fine kid, you got some balls, and you're still alive, so here." He deposited a small sum of caps into her hands. She counted it out.

"This isn't very much. At least not for what we went through." Amata said.

"Not my fault you're a pair of dumb bitches." Jericho said, walking away, flashing them with a rude hand sign.

"Did no one see that?" Amata asked aloud. She took a few steps forward, but Sam grabbed her shoulder, and held her back.

"It's not worth it." Sam said.

"This kind of stuff wasn't what I was expecting when we left." Amata said.

"I was expecting a 20 foot giant scorpion with cars in its pincers." Sam said.

"Really?"

"Well, it seemed as likely as anything else." Sam told her.

* * *

The two then went on to look for odd jobs to take on around town. They met Walter, the tough but pleasant enough mechanic of the town who needed help with repairing the pipes around town, a job the two took on.

They even visited the church, which was a pleasant enough place, but was incredibly creepy to the two Vault inhabitants.

As they were fixing one of the pipes on the path that led to the main gate, they were found by the Sherriff.

"Wow Sam, you sure are good with your hands." Amata remarked as Sam proceeded to wrench shut a leak.

"Well, I hung out with Stanley a lot, and you learn a thing or two around him." Sam said, wiping his forearm. "Well, at least if you are paying attention, I still remember the time I came in to see him, and Christine was knee deep in water. Remember that week when our Water Rations were cut in half?"

"That was because of Christine?" Amata asked.

"I figured everyone knew." Sam said.

"There you two are." The two turned to see the Sheriff walking towards them.

"What'd we do?" Sam blurted out.

"Nothing, well, nothing wrong at least." The Sheriff said with a smile. "A little kooky bird tells me you two managed to fix this towns little 'problem'."

"Oh, you're talking about the b-"

"Not out loud boy, the locals are rather touchy on the subject." Simms said. "Anyway, I've asking around trying to find someone with the know-how to fix my toaster."

"Toaster?" Sam asked.

"I would have rather you come to me about it first, but here's the money I would have given anyway." He pulled a small bag that rattled with the bottlecaps inside. "100 caps for a successfully broken toaster."

"Thank you very much Sheriff." Amata said.

"That's not all; I also heard you headed into Springvale." The Sheriff said.

"Y-yeah?" Sam asked.

"Now those Raiders have been causing us trouble for half a decade now, I've been meaning to gather a posse and wipe'em out, but I've been unwilling to risk a man looking for their hangout. While I'm thankful that you've done as much as you've had, and I'm sure you can't be eager to go back, I'd be thankful if you ride with us tomorrow and finish the job."

"I'm not too sure that you'd want us with you." Amata said.

"It's not like I'm asking you to do this outa the kindness of your heart. They'res a few extra guns in it for you, and I might be so grateful that I might give you a place to stay in town if you're so inclined."

The two looked at each other for a moment. "It's something we'll consider." Amata said.

"Well thank you then. And keep doing what you're doing." With a tip of his hat, he left to continue the patrol of the town.

"Well Amata what do you think?" Sam asked.

"We do need a place to sleep. And I guess it's not like we're going back to the Vault now, so something permanent would be nice."

"But do you really want to go back there?"

"Honestly? I don't think so. But hey, we managed to get out okay, and that was with just the two of us. I'm assuming there won't be many more of them, and we'll have a lot more people with us."

* * *

The assembled posse stood outside of the Gate to Megaton, each of the men fierce in their own way.

Lucas Simms led the front, with his leather duster flowing in the light breeze, his badge shining in the sunlight, and his oversized hat obscuring his features, with his assault rifle in hand, resting on his shoulder.

Jericho was to his left, smoking a cigar rete in one hand, and holding his rifle in another, casting a menacing glance over the landscape.

Stockholm was fitted in the old armor of one of the National Guard, with a woolen hat over his head, and a pair of goggles over his sharp eyes, the quiet vigil of Megaton held his trusty scoped hunting rifle tightly in his hands.

Old Billy Creel stood with a toothy grin, with a belt of shotgun shells around his waist and shoulder, he held his Combat Shotgun with a loose, but confident grip, his leather boots grinding into the sand.

Behind them were the two mechanical defenders of Megaton, Deputy Weld, the rusted and sturdy Protectron, and Deputy Steel, the hovering Mr. Gutsy, each with a shiny medal welded into their chestplates.

Lastly were the two Vault Dwellers, the 101's on their backs showing prominently. Newly armed with an old assault rifle, and 10mm SMG, the two cautiously guided the men through the ruins of Springvale.

"We passed that old Gas station there, and just kept walking down the street until we found the school." Amata said. "It's not that far from here, just down the hill."

"Alright then." Lucas Simms said. "Stockholm, find a place to bunker down, and give us support. Jericho, you're with me and the bots, Creel, keep an eye on the kids."

"Does he mean us?" Sam asked.

"Come on." The sheriff said as everyone fell into loose position.

"So when we get close to the building, should we sneak in or…?" Amata began.

Jericho lifted his rifle into the air, and fired off a few rounds. "COME ON OUT BITCHES!"

"Or that…"

Lucas Simms aimed his rifle, and took out a raider who was hiding out on the second floor, soon after the two robots began taking shots at the old building.

Jericho grabbed a hand grenade from his belt, and threw it hard at the raider encampment, with an 'oh shit' being heard shortly before the explosion, which in turn caused the two Vault Dwellers to visibly flinch.

Sam gripped his new Assault Rifle, and aimed at the old double doors of the Elementary school, and shot at a Raider who had just emerged. The woman clad in a piece of tin, turned around, but fell from a distant shot from Stockholm.

"Alright, we'll go in." Lucas said firing a stream of bullets. "Flush 'em out. You guys stay out here, and take out any that fall through the cracks." With that, Simms kicked down an old door that finally fell off its hinges, and stormed in, followed by Jericho, and the two town robots.

"Whelp. That was exciting." Billy Creel said, gripping his shotgun. "How're you two holding out."

"Okay." Sam said.

"Still trying to get used to the violence." Amata said. "Is it always like this?"

"Hmm? Not every day, so long as you don't go looking for trouble." Billy Creel said. "You do gotta be careful about the Raiders though, they're really nasty in these parts."

Amata sighed, as sounds of violence could be heard from within the defunct school.

"Hey, I have a question." Sam said.

"Shoot."

"The Sherriff didn't want to go looking for the Raiders because he didn't know where they were, right? But Jericho set us off to the Raiders knowing where they were. So why didn't the Sherriff just ask Jericho where the Raiders were?"

Billy Creel shrugged. "I don't know."

Three raiders burst through the entryway, Billy Creel took out the first with a shotgun blast, while Sam took out the second with an Assault rifle burst. Amata tried to take out the last one with her SMG, but she lost control, and the gun jammed, so she only got off a few shots on his leg. Despite this, he kept running towards her, with a knife in hand, he knocked her down, only to be brought down himself by a sniper shot to the head.

"You okay?" Billy Creel asked, extending his hand.

"The gun jammed." Amata said, accepting Billy's help.

Sam picked up the gun, and messed with it for a few seconds.

"Come on; let's check out the other entrance." Billy Creel said.

"Here, the gun should be better." Sam said, handing Amata her gun back.

"How did you do that?" Amata said, after staring at her gun for a few seconds.

"Watching way too many old movies."

"There's one." Billy Creel said, firing off two shots. "You know, if we had some music, and a Nuka-Cola, we could have a picnic."

"Yeah, a picnic." Amata said.

"FUCK THIS SHIT!" Shouted another raider, who emerged, wielding a simple revolver. He was swiftly brought down by Sam's Assault Rifle.

"You guys can just stand back; I'll take care of the rest." Billy Creel said, reloading his shotgun.

"I can't imagine there being many left." Amata said.

The moment she said that, Deputy Weld came out from the school with a knife embedded in his faceplate.

"DO NOT. BE ALARMED. LAW AND ORDER. WILL BE. RESTORED. SHORTLY." He said.

"Well look at you, where'd you get that knife?" Billy Creel said. "Let me get that thing off of you."

"PLEASE. STEP AWAY. FROM THE MACHINE." Deputy Weld said.

"Alright."

"That seems to be that last of them." Lucas Simms said emerging from the school, followed by Jericho, and Deputy Steel. "You two did a real number on them."

"Fuckin' Giant Ants everywhere, these fuckers went and set up shop over a fuckin' nest." Jericho said, spitting on the ground.

"Anyway, I figure that'll be all-" Lucas Simms was interrupted by a distant gunshot, most likely fired by Stockholm. "All of them. Anyone else who happened to be outside will find nothing of use. You two keep the guns, I'll hand over the key to your new house when we get back."

"_Ah, yet another day of death and destruction." _Said Deputy Steel. _"Wouldn't miss it __for the world."_

* * *

Authors Note: Sorry for the long wait for the update. I hope that this is still being read.

What do you think about the direction the story went? I'd like to know if you think I went too far, or just far enough. I think this chapter is different than the last, because the last was more of a stylized going through of the Elementary school, while this was like a new quest using characters not of my own creation.

Basically, the way I see it, these stories have to work in a way that I keep close enough to the story so that the readers agree, but different enough to keep it interesting and I want to make sure that I'm doing that.

Please review etc. etc.

Sincerely

-Samaster01


	7. To Arefu

Out of Disorder, into Chaos, Ch. 5:

* * *

A sharp click could be heard could be heard as the key was inserted into the simple lock, and the plain door opened into a tall but small room made of scrap metal.

"So, this is it." Amata said. "Home, sweet home."

"Seems like it." Sam said, taking a look around the room. "Hey look, it's a Mr. Handy." Sam laid his weapons on the floor, and took a look at the disabled Mr. Handy curled up by a handful of computers.

"Know how to fix it?" Amata asked.

"I know enough to turn it on." Sam said, bending over the computers, and turning on the power. "Huh, this thing's been off for quite a while."

"Having a Mr. Handy should be quite helpful around here." Amata said, turning her gaze upon her new abode. There was little furniture to speak of. On the floor they were on, there was a pair of old Lockers, one with one of its door's against the wall opposite the door. Next to it was a chair with a torn cushion, and on the wall opposite the staircase was some kind of plastic stand. Along said staircase there was a short but empty bookcase, and behind it she could see a couple of old shelving units. Where she was standing, there were some rubber mats on the floor, and the small stack of computers the Mr. Handy, and that was it.

"Okay, the thing should be connected; the only thing to do is… flip the switch." Sam said, and with that the Mr. Handy's engine flared to life, and the hover motor powered the Mr. Handy off the floor, and the various arms and eyes unfurled.

"Well hello there." The Mr. Handy said. "And who might you be?"

"We're the new owners of the house here." Amata said, reaching into her bag. "The Sherriff gave us this certificate here." Amata pulled out a piece of old paper that Lucas Simms had drawn up. The robot extended one of its bulbous eyes close to the paper.

"Ah, everything seems to be in order. If my chronometer is correct, than it _has_ been an awful long time since the last owner was here." He said.

"What was he like?" Sam asked.

"It appears as though he, or perhaps she, has wiped most of the records of themselves from my memory banks. Though I do seem to recall that I did not especially like them." The Robot said. "Oh, where are my manners, my name is Wadsworth, your personal robotic butler, how might I address you?"

"My name is Amata, and this is my um, boyfriend, Sam." Amata said. "What exactly do you do?"

"Well, as stated I am your robotic butler. My function is to service your needs, and keep you entertained. You can set me to clean, to tidy your various things, and I also know a small amount of 'wasteland cooking' that is so much in style these days. Some of my accessible functions include a beauticians kit, which includes a large array of 'in the look' hairstyles, a water collection system, very much in demand these days. And of course in the case of a break in, or communist invasion, I also facilitate a good 'one-two punch' to the intruding ruffian."

"All in all, sound's very useful." Amata said.

"Splendid, splendid, I don't suppose either of you two be interested in a tour of your new abode?"

"Sure, why not." Amata said.

"Alright then." The robot hovered over to the center of the room. "This would be the living room. As you can see the previous owner seems to have taken most of the furnishings with them. What we have left, are the two lockers here, previously used to house the owners fine collection of fire-arms. The light controls for this house are located at the computer terminals atop of my recharge station, with additional switches located in the kitchenette, and Master Bedroom. However the local authority has asked that we turn off the lights during the day to conserve power. The previous owner was also a bobblehead collector, with his collection once housed on this stand here, which helps maintain the condition of said bobbleheads, and has its own powered light source to show them off."

Sam reached into his bag, and pulled out his own Vault Tectm Bobblehead, and placed it on the stand.

"Where'd you get that?" Amata asked.

"I grabbed it off of my Dad's desk as I was leaving." Sam told her.

"Excellent Master, I'm sure you'll have the entire collection in no time. _Provided you have no social life._"

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing, come, let's move to the kitchenette." The robot then hovered over to the small corner of the room that was partially blocked by the staircase, followed by the two Vault Dwellers. "Here we have a fully powered refrigerator, guaranteed to keep your food fresh for days, and a fully functional sink, hooked up to the town water purifier, guaranteeing it's freshness and safety. We have a couple of shelving units for you to put your plates and various kitchen utensils. In fact it even seems that the previous owner left some of theirs."

"It's not much, but it's something." Sam said.

"Now, we shall abscond to the upstairs." Wadsworth said. "Be mindful, we have yet to set up a railing for it."

Sam and Amata followed the robot up the uneven staircase to the second floor, which was basically a catwalk that overlooked the first floor. At the back of the house were a few doors that were currently closed; on both sides of the railing was a table, one of which had another chair sitting next to it.

"Here we are on the second floor. Here we have access to the bedroom, and the storage closet, as well as most of the windows. We also have this nice little table here, useful if one want's to indulge in a little brunch, with a nice view of both the bottom floor inside, and the street below outside."

Sam and Amata moved past the robot to the closest door, which apparently led to the storage closet. It was a large enough room, with a large square window giving them a good view of the crater. The only furnishings it had was another small table and chair, and another shelving unit. The other door led to what was apparently the bedroom. Inside was an old metal desk with a small chair tucked into it, and a metal filing cabinet next to it. Lastly, beneath a small square window with blinds, and pressed up against the wall was a metal bedframes, bare of anything fit to call it a bed, save for a mattress.

"Thank you Wadsworth." Amata said. "We'll call you if we need you."

"I bid you adieu then." He said, hovering his way back downstairs. Amata simply closed the door, and sat on the bare bed.

"So this is how we'll be living from now on?" Amata asked.

"Apparently." Sam said, sitting on the chair at the desk, with it creaking slightly against his weight. "We could always try to gather up some money, try to find someplace better, someplace just like the Vault."

"It's okay." Amata said. "Come, sit here." He did so. "Things are going a lot better than I thought they might. We have shelter, we have a home, we're safe for now, and we're in good company. Considering all the things we've read in books, and seen in movies about the end of the world, we're doing pretty well."

"Yeah." Sam said. "I still can't believe you and me went on a raid, all western style. That was pretty good."

"Yeah." Amata said, laying back. "I think next we should try to organize the place, set our stuff down around here."

"Yeah." Sam said, leaning back on the bed with her. "We'll try to make enough money to pay off Moriarty. We'll get all kitted out to go into the wasteland. We'll find my Dad. And we can start a life here."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

And before either of the two knew it, they fell asleep in each-other's arms.

The two Vault Dwellers let themselves into Moriarty's saloon, and were greeted by Gob.

* * *

"Hey, it's my two favorite smoothskins!" He called out.

"Hey Gob." Amata said.

"We're here to see Moriarty." Sam told him.

"We managed to get some money from the Sherriff, just enough to pay off the greedy jerk." Amata said.

"Yeah, Jericho was in here bragging about the whole raid. I think people'll be a little friendlier to you know." Gob said. "Boss is in the back."

"Thanks." Sam said, holding a bag that contained a total of 100 bottlecaps, heading towards the back of the scrap bar.

"So, what was it like, you're first big shootout?" Gob asked.

"Easier than before. But we didn't do much. Does this kind of stuff happen often?" She asked.

"The shooting? Yeah. The getting together to do it? No." Gob told her. "And since your BF's dad skipped outta town, I have a feeling you'll be needing to keep those new guns you got."

Amata sighed. "I was kinda hoping it wouldn't be so violent out here."

"Well, I guess living in a paradise like a Vault doesn't prepare ya for anything violent like everything out here."

Amata perked up her ears, as she could hear shouting coming from the back. Sam backed out of the curtains that divided the place from the rest of the bar, and she could hear a few curse words thrown in his direction.

"What happened?" Gob asked.

"I told him I had the money, but he threw it back at me." Sam said, as if he wasn't sure what happened.

"What? After all that work?" Amata asked.

"He said since I refused to pay him last time, the old deal wasn't valid. Said the new deal was for three hundred." Sam

"What! Why I oughta-"

"I'll stop you there." Gob said, as Amata was getting out of her seat. "You don't mess with this guy; he'll make living here a living hell, at least a lot more than it already is."

"But come on, we almost got killed a couple times trying to get that money!" Amata said.

"Look, I know you're screwed, but you want what he has, you gotta play his game. That's how it works."

"How can that be?" Amata asked.

"It's just how the world is." He told her.

To keep herself from blowing up, Amata stormed out of the rinky-dink saloon. Gob turned to look at Sam, who was wearing the same confused and bewildered expression on his face.

"She seems pretty upset, considering it's your Dad that's missing."

* * *

Sam joined Amata on the balcony overlooking the crater. "You okay?" He asked.

"No." Amata said. "Since we got out here, there's always been someone out here trying to screw us over. I don't like it."

"I'm sorry." Sam said.

"Why are you sorry?" Amata asked.

"Well it's my Dad we're looking for." Sam said. "We wouldn't have so much trouble if it wasn't for that."

"It's not your fault." Amata said. At the same time, she didn't want to say, _'it was your dad's.'_

"But I'm the one making me do this." He said.

"Sam, there is no-one inside, or outside of the Vault who can make me do anything." Amata told him.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Sam said.

"Besides, we gotta keep looking for your dad, right?" Amata asked.

"Well, I don't want to drag you into any more danger." Sam said. "I mean, things got pretty scary at the raider den. I'm worried that might be just the tip of the iceberg."

"Well, you want to keep looking for your dad, right?"

"Not if it means getting you into danger." He told her.

"Well, what if I wasn't here?" Amata asked.

"If that were the case…" Sam paused to think. "I wouldn't stop looking. I mean, he could be dead for all I now, but I still wouldn't stop looking."

"Well then, I'm not going to hold you back, and I'm gonna be there every step of the way." Amata said. "And there's no two ways about it, one, because we're in love, but I'm still you're best friend, and two, you wouldn't survive out there without me."

"Yeah, you're probably right about that." Sam admitted.

"So I guess we just keep trying to make more money?" Amata asked.

"Yeah." Sam nodded. "It's our cross to bear."

* * *

The two Vault Dwellers headed over to Craterside supplies to make sure they were fully kitted out. Moira greeted them warmly, and asked them about Moriarty.

"Well that was mean!" Moira said, sweeping her floors. "Making a deal, and then turning it into another. Moriarty isn't a very nice guy."

"Well we figured that much for ourselves." Amata said. She had laid out their combined inventory on the counter to see what they should, and shouldn't take with them.

"Well what are you going to do now?" Moira asked.

"We've planned to deliver a letter for someone in town." Amata said. "She already put in the location into our pip-boy, somewhere called Arefu. We just want to make sure we're fully supplied."

"Well, it's a good thing you came to me." Moira said proudly. "Every adventurer, wastelander, and mercenary that passes through Megaton makes sure to stop by my store."

"So what would you advise?" Amata asked.

"First, dump everything you don't need on the shops, give me all your junk, you can get bogged down pretty easy in the wasteland, so better you give it to me, and you get some caps." Moira said.

"That's what we're doing right now." Amata said.

"Secondly, repair your weapons." Moira said. "Weapon maintenance is a big part of going into the wasteland. You can use the workbench over there to do it." She said, pointing to the blue bench by the door. "I let customers use it for free, though not everyone does. I suggest you repair your weapons, yours don't look in the best condition."

Amata picked up the SMG, and remembered that time when it jammed. "Except, I don't know the first thing about guns."

"Well, it's not that hard. You can use some stuff, like duct tape, and wonderglue, in the wasteland if you have too, but that won't last long. Some people outside the Capital Wasteland use weapon repairing kits, but those are hard to come by. It's generally best if you use a spare gun and use it to repair yours at a bench. Of course, if all that fails, you can pay someone with know-how to fix it."

"Wow, all that's actually pretty useful." Amata said. "You gonna put that in that book of yours?"

"Yeppers." Moira said with a bright smile. "By the way, if you're going to Arefu, there's this great called Minefield not far from there, which would be great for my explosives chapter."

"You want us to go into a minefield?" Amata asked.

"No, the place is _called_ Minefield." Moira told them. "The place actually used to be called Ridgefield. It just happens to have a bunch of mines in it."

"What would you have us do?" Sam asked.

"Well, there's supposed to be playground in the middle of the place. If you can get there, if would be great way of figuring out how to get through a minefield. And if you can get me an actual mine, then I could tell people how the things tick." Moira explained.

"You want us to bring you a live mine?" Amata asked.

"Well, if you disarm one, you can sell it for a lot of caps." Moira explained. "Besides there's no reason to worry about the place, since everyone avoids it because it's a ghost town. And since ghosts don't exist, you can just focus on the land mines."

"Yeah, that sounds fun." Amata said sarcastically. "Alright, what weapons should we bring?"

"Well, I'll admit that's not my area of expertise." Moira admitted. "But he should know." She said, pointing to her mercenary.

Amata turned to the mercenary leaning on the wall to see that he was drifting off into sleep. "Hey you wake up." She said, shaking the man.

"Huh? What's that?" He said, waking up.

"We need advice on what weapons to bring." Amata told him.

The mercenary wiped his eyes, and looked around. "Alright, let me have a look." He viewed the collections of weapons that Sam had laid on the counter. "Okay, only keep one melee weapon on you, and only use that on the small stuff you don't want to waste ammo on, unless you're big and beefy, and bullet proof. I'd say the knife and the bat once you get some nails in this thing."

"I can't do that!" Sam cried out. The mercenary turned to him, and Sam backed down.

"As I was saying, these-" He picked up the police batons. "Sell, you're not gonna get much use for these. The guns, this-" He held up the pistol Amata had used. "Ditch, piece of crap here."

"Are you sure?" Amata asked, actually having grown fond of the gun.

"It's in good shape, but it's a piece of shit in these parts. It's meant for a nine mil round, but you won't find that here, the ten mil round this things been fitted for loses all accuracy, and power, much better off using this-" He picked up Sam's gun. "Same round, bigger magazine, better durability, better accuracy, basically this pistol kicks that pistols ass. Revolver here, bad gun, few rounds, decent accuracy, but it's meant to take a .357 round, but it's been fitted of a .32 rifle round, better used in a decent hunting rifle. Alright, shotgun." He pulled up the sawed off shotgun Sam had taken from a raider. "Good first weapon, fires from both barrels this one, shotgun shells are actually pretty common here, this'd be a good back-up weapon, but try to get a better shotgun when you can. Alright, this one here-" He gestured to the SMG. "bad condition, but this is a pretty common SMG, but the thing burns through ammo quickly, couple of beginners like you should be careful, takes the same ammo as those pistols, which can be a good thing, and bad thing, on one hand, you need to carry less calibers, on the other, you lose some of the power of the shot by switching weapons, and that isn't a good thing when ammo's scarce. The rifle here could use some work on it, but a pretty basic weapon, good against raiders, animals, and super mutants, though you'll want to stock up on ammunition. Keep the grenades; just make sure you don't blow yourself up. Now since that's all, I'm going back to my nap."

And without further ado, he did so.

"Wow, he actually seems to know his stuff too." Sam said.

"So I guess that means we'll use some of our money to buy some ammo for our guns." Amata said. "So, I guess we'll get rid of the police batons, and the revolver."

"Shouldn't we try to keep all our money?" Sam asked.

"[BARTER] First rule of economics, you got to spend money to make money." Amata stated.

"Ooh, that's good, mind if I use that in the book?" Moira asked.

"Sure." Amata said. She and Moira went over the transaction, and the two gained several rounds of 10mm ammunition, and another magazine of 5.56 rifle ammunition for the assault rifle, while still getting a small profit.

"By the way, before you leave, I got something for you." Moira popped into the adjacent room, and came back with two Vault Suits. "I promised that I'd give these to you guys, and here they are."

"What are they?" Amata asked.

"Armored Vault Suits!" Moira said proudly. "You can wear your 101's proudly and not have to worry about being shot up."

Sam took one, and looked it over. It seemed like normal Vault Suit with parts of it having been reinforced, particularly the knees, elbows, wrist, and shoulder pads, with extra belts being placed around the waste, including one across the chest for holding ammo, like the one Billy Creel had, along with a holster at one side.

"And the best part… they're matching!" Moira gushed.

"Uh thanks." Amata said.

"I like it." Sam said, with a smile.

"Now you're all ready to go out into the big, bad wasteland." Moira said. "Oh, but you need some snacks for the journey don't you, hang on a minute." Moira headed into the other room once more, and came back with a pair of lunch boxes. "Here, there's a sandwich in both, some mole-rat jerky, and a bottle of water for both of you, free of charge."

Amata took the thing, and looked at the grinning Vault Boy on the top lid. "Thanks." Amata said. "Really."

Moira simply smiled.

* * *

Having made all available preparations, the two headed towards the great scrap gate out of Megaton. Both were clothed in the Armored Vault Suits that Moira had given them, and had their weapons strapped to their sides, ready for any trouble that may come their way.

"So, then, you ready?" Sam asked.

"Yeah." Amata said. "It's just delivering a letter, right? Shouldn't be that hard." Amata said. The two made their way to the large entrance that led to the way out of Megaton. Both were smiling at the other, until Amata saw someone waiting for them.

"Hello my dear." The man in the white suit said, leaning against one of the columns. "I was just about to leave this wastehole myself, but I had decided to wait until I had a chance to catch up with you myself, my dear." He moved his glasses so he could look at her directly. "I won't forget this."

With that he adjusted his tie, and walked into the open wasteland until soon he was gone from their sight.

"Amata, what was that?" Sam asked.

"Nothing Sam, let's just keep going." Amata told him.

* * *

LOADING… PLEASE STAND BY… LOADING… READY…

* * *

The two walked through the ruins of Springfield in a comfortable silence when they reached the now calm ruins of Springfield Elementary. "Alright, the river's right there." Amata said. We just need to follow it, shouldn't be that bad."

Sam nodded. It was easy to notice that somewhere along the past two-hundred years that the water level had dropped, if the nearby buildings such as the elementary school were an indicator. The greenish tint of the slushing water also gave the two Vault Dwellers an uneasy feeling.

They kept walking seeing more relics of the past. One of the roads far to their right rose up into the sky, far over their heads, over what was left of the river, but had collapsed half way across the river, with pieces of rubble, and old cars forming a small island in the middle of the green water.

They kept following the river bank without coming into much trouble, at one point they were attacked by a rabid dog, that Sam put down with his pistol. Later they came across a road that followed the river bank until it lead to a bridge heading away from the direction they were going.

"Hey what're those?" Amata asked, pointing to some kind of animal in the water of the river. It was pale white, it stood on two legs like a man, but it had a pair of claws on booth arms.

"I don't know." Sam said. "It doesn't look like anything from our biology textbooks. Think it's the radiation?"

"Maybe." Amata said. "Didn't they tell us the water out here is all radiated? Maybe living down there did it."

"Well, as long as we don't bother it, it won't bother us, right?" Sam said.

The two moved on through the rocky sand that overlooked the pools of water, in silence once more, the heat beginning to cause them to sweat.

"Hey, look at that." Sam said, pointing to some unknown structure on a hill in the distance. "Wanna check it out?"

"I don't see why not." Amata said. As the two walked closer, they could see two main structures, one square building, and another large flat screen, with several parked cars scattered around. "Hey, I think it's supposed to be an out outdoor cinema."

"You think? You're right it is." Sam said. "Do you think there's any chance we could play an old film here, or something?"

"None." Amata said, trying to get up the hill. "But I don't see the harm in trying."

Sam smiled at her.

"TIME TO DIE PRICKS!" The two turned to the voice, and saw a man adorned in several spikes firing an assault rifle from the hip. Sam quickly drew his pistol, and fired three shots at the man who quickly fell back.

"Crap, raiders." Amata muttered.

"This way." Sam and Amata took cover behind the projector building, and took out there weapons. Sam held a grenade in his hand.

"Seriously, a grenade?" She asked.

-You have discovered Moonbeam Outdoor Cinema! -

"Yeah, you're supposed to fire a grenade out first, then fire, here, take the shotgun." He passed the sawed off shotgun to her. Sam took out his rifle, and laid it on the ground. "Now-"

"Ahh!"

Amata unloaded both barrels of her weapon on the Raider that was coming at her with a spiked bat.

"Crap, I have no idea how to reload this!" Amata said.

"Here, let me have a look at the thing." Sam said, setting down his grenade. He took the weapon, and showed her how to reload it.

"It's a break action weapon, so you break it here, and insert a shell into each barrel, see, here." He handed back to her, and picked up his weapons. "Alright, so wait for the bang and then we come out of cover, and take out the raiders, ok?"

"Ok."

Sam pulled the pin of his grenade, and threw it around the wall. The two waited for a few seconds, and popped around the wall themselves just in time to see the cars parked to watch a movie that never came explode 12 feet into the air, and set off a chain reaction that destroyed each of the cars, and killing all of the Raiders seeking cover there.

The two stared in awe of the destruction until things calmed down, and the wasteland became quiet once more.

* * *

-LEVEL UP-

SAM

EXPLOSIVES +10

SMALL GUNS + 5

NEW PERK: GUN NUT

* * *

-LEVEL UP-

AMATA

SNEAK + 5

SMALL GUNS + 5

SPEECH +5

NEW PERK: SWIFT LEARNER

* * *

"Huh, I always thought that car explosions in movies were just Hollywood effects, you know?" Sam said.

Amata shrugged. "Do you think now's a good time for lunch?" She asked.

Sam was silent for a moment before shrugging, and the two sat down in front of the projector building, looking at the screen, taking out the two lunchboxes Moira had made for them. Both of them first took a drink from the bottled water, and went about eating their lunch. Amata set her pip-radio to the 'Enclave' station. "Dinner theater." She explained.

Sam nodded. "Amata? Did you ever once in a million years see yourself in this kind of situation?"

"A few times." Amata said, taking bight out of her sandwich. "Hey this isn't actually half bad."

"You mean being out in the wasteland, or this particular circumstance?" He asked.

"Out in the wasteland." Amata said. "I've always been curious. Of course, I was hoping things would be better out here. But as far as things go, it could be worse out here. There are a few settlements; we have some food and water. It's not impossible to live out here."

Sam nodded. "What do you think Arefu will be like?" Sam asked.

"Probably it'll be a lot like Megaton, I guess." Amata said. "I can't figure the people will be any friendlier."

"Yeah." Sam said. He took a cautious nibble on his jerky. "I think that I'm going to have to get used to the food here, though."

Amata chuckled. "You do the shooting; I'll do the cooking, ok?"

"But you never took a cooking class." Sam stated. "You said it was too girlie."

"Well it's not too late to learn." Amata told him. "Besides, I bet I can't do any worse than what we're eating now."

Sam shrugged, not wishing to challenge Amata.

"_Greetings, Dearest America, this is your President, John Henry Eden, and I'd like to have a chat." _A voice came on the radio.

"Hey, it's the president." Sam said.

"_Did you know, that there are those amongst us, who would shatter our hopes of peace, order, and security? These radical malcontents don't care about you, they don't care about America! All they care about is fulfilling their own selfish desires." _

The couple looked at the other, and decided to shift a little closer together.

"_Let's take a tally of these agitators, shall we? There are of course, the raiders." _The two looked at the smoking ruins of the cinema they were in.

"_Those anarchistic ruffians, who roam the wastes, preying on any and all, stealing, murdering. The so called, Brotherhood of Steel."_

"Hey, those are the guys Moriarty mentioned!" Sam said.

"_Don't be fooled by their pseudo-knightly nonsense, or supposed connections to the United States Army. These… power armored boy scouts, are nothing more than common criminals, with access to some antiquated technology. Criminals, who have had the audacity to claim this country's most important military installation, the Pentagon, as their own personal club house. And don't be fooled America, those who have left the Brotherhood of Steel, branded Outcasts, are just as dangerous. Even more so, being in exile."_ Sam seemed somewhat down after the presidents' description of the Brotherhood.

"_And what about the Slavers of Paradise Falls? The frighteningly irradiated ghouls of Underworld? And last but not least, the hideously mutated Super Mutants, that have completely overrun the entire downtown D.C. area. Lawlessness terror, murder. They're all around us! I know, I know. But not for long, sweet America. Not for long. Oh no, the Enclave will… restore peace, order, and prosperity, to this great nation. And those who oppose us will be removed. Forever." _

"_This is John Henry Eden; signing off." _

With that, more patriotic music resumed on the radio.

"Sounds like there are a lot of problems around her." Amata said. "Here I was thinking all we'd have to worry about is the raiders."

"He mentioned the Brotherhood." Sam said. "Moriarty told me that Dad was with a Brotherhood member when he first came into the Vault."

Amata sighed. "We still haven't proved that that guy isn't completely lying to your face. He certain hasn't done anything to gain our trust."

"I guess." Sam said.

With that the two finished their lunch, and moved on.

* * *

"I think that might be it there." Sam said, pointing to an old road that crossed the river. On it, you could make out a few buildings nestled at its crest.

"Yeah, that looks about right." Amata said.

Soon enough they were upon the entrance to the place. Right next to the entrance was a large tin shack beside a long dead tree, with a barbed wire fence that held in some now deceased two-headed animals.

"What do you think this is about?" Amata asked.

"I don't know. These things don't look dangerous. They look like they've been here for a while." Sam said.

They moved onto the road themselves, and could see the old green road sign that proclaimed-

EXIT 150A

AREFU

NEXT EXIT

MILES

The two waked up the concrete road, on one side were the wrecks of cars, various rubble and scrap, trying not to get too close to the edge, where several cracks had been covered with wooden slats. Within a few minutes they were upon the settlements themselves.

*BANG!*

The two grabbed onto each other and froze.

"Hang on! You're not one of them!" The two looked up to see an old man with a rifle, behind a row of sandbags. "Cripes, I almost blew you in bits and pieces!

The two looked at one another, and quickly sprinted towards the old man, and behind the sandbags, where he had a chair, and several boxes of ammunition. "Now what the hell are the two of you doing all the way out here?" He asked, keeping his eye on the road.

"Who did you think we were?" Amata asked, rather angry about almost being exploded.

"I thought you may have been from The Family. A bunch of lowlife gangsters, who have been terrorizing this town lately. Cause of them, my trigger finger, has been a lot more itchy." He told them, breaking his rifle in two, and reloading it, just like how Sam had taught Amata earlier.

"So they're raiders then?" Amata asked.

"No way, if they were, you'd probably be looking at a husk of a town… well more of husk than this place already is." He told them. "By the way, the names Evan King. Anyway, what we're dealing with is more a group of lowlifes who just like making us miserable. First it was typical gang bullshit, break stuff, make noises, now though? They went too far, killed all our Brahmin, I'd be surprised if you missed it. I mean, that's our lifeblood out here!"

"Well why don't you fight back?" Amata asked.

"Uh-huh, sure, I'm gonna take them out all by my lonesome, you crazy or something?" He glared. "When they come, I lock my doors, and hope for the best, same as everyone else." He looked at the two. "How come that one's not talking?" He asked.

Sam stuttered for a bit. "He's shy." Amata explained.

"Uh-huh. Hey, would you two mind making yourself useful, around here?" He asked. "See, I can't take my eyes off the on-ramp here, in case The Family comes. Do me a favor, and check on all the houses here? There aren't many people left. Just make sure they're okay, look for David West, Ken Ewer, and Karen Schenzy. Mine's the biggest one, right behind us."

"Sure we could do that." Amata said, pulling out the letter from Lucy.

"Who's that for?" Evan King asked.

"It's from Lucy West to her father." Amata said. "That's why we came here."

"Alright, just deliver that to the wests when you come to them." Evan King said.

The two nodded, and started checking on houses, knocking on the door of the firs one they came too.

"Hello?" Came an airy voice. "Ooh! Is this the mailman? I do hope that my fall catalogue has arrived!"

"Huh?" Amata said. "Um, Evan King sent us."

"Oh, Evan! He's such a gentleman! Please, let me unlock the door for you." The two could hear a bolt-lock being moved, and the shack door opened up.

"Brailee! What are you doing?" A male voice called out. A man soon blocked the two's entry into the shack.

"What are you doing here, get the fuck out!"

"Hey, hey, there's no need to be rude!" Amata said. "Why so hostile?"

"Maybe because my wife's mental? Oh, oh, is it because there are armed lunatics, trying to kill us? Hmm, can't seem to think of a reason." He said.

"Oh, please do let our guests in Ken? I made them some cookies!" The other voice called.

"I've told you enough times, ugh, fine, come in." He got out of the way, and the two waked into the dim, and barely furnished shack. A fine young blond woman came to greet them.

"Please don't mind my husband, he can be a little hot-tempered at times, we're the Ewers, I'm Brailee, and that's my husband Kenneth, and who might you be."

"Amata."

"Uh, my name's Sam."

"Ah, what a delight to meet you!" She said. "Would you like some cookies?"

Ken Ewers shook his head at the two. "Cookies would be great." Amata said.

"Oh goodie!" Ken ewers did a facepalm. "Please do take a seat! You two must be exhausted from the heat."

The two sat down around the small table, while Brailee Ewers went over to the stove, and started humming. She paused to turn on the radio, which started playing the Enclave Station.

"What the fuck are the two of you doing here?" Ken Ewers asked.

"Evan King asked us to check up on everyone."

"Oh, we're great, just peachy." He said sarcastically. "I just love sitting here, with my thumb up my ass. You need to tell Mr. King that sitting here isn't doing anything, we need to take action."

"Here are your cookies!" Brailee Ewer said with a smile, placing a plate that had a tin can on top it in front of the two. The couple from Vault 101 turned to Ken Ewer.

"She's crazy." Kenneth said, answering they're unasked questions. "Take a look: Honey, why don't you tell out two 'guests' about what's been happening lately."

"Oh my, well, Mrs. West is probably whipping up one of her famous pies, and all the kids are playing in the yards. Karen is probably sipping a nice glass of lemonade, and Mr. King is probably tinkering on that old Hot-Rod of his. And of course the weather has been simply divine lately."

"Toldja." Ken said. "The old head-shrinker who used to live here some time back said she had 'Old World Blues, supposed to mean, she think she's back in the before-the-war-times."

"Is she like this because of the family?" Amata asked.

"Nah, she's been like this for a few years." Ken said. "Most of us get a laugh out of it, even if everything she tries to feed you is made of scrap metal."

"What do you know about the family?" Amata asked.

"Oh, they're a fun bunch, scaring the living daylights out of us, for their personal amusement. I'd take a shot at them-" He showed his revolver. "But judging on what happened to the Brahmin, I wouldn't live for much longer."

"Alright then, I guess we should check on the other houses." Amata said, getting up. "Come on Sam."

Sam followed Amata out the door, but paused for a second. "It was nice meeting the two of you." He told them.

"Get out of my house." Ken replied.

The two kept walking down the road, over piles of rubble to the next shack.

"This is place is kinda dirty, huh?" Sam remarked.

They knocked on the door to the next house.

"Yes, who is it?" Came the voice.

"Hello? Evan King sent us." Amata said.

"Oh he did? About damn time he did something, one second." The owner of the house unlocked the door, and stepped out, wearing a gown made of rags. "Nice to see some friendly faces, name's Karen Schenzy."

"I'm Amata, and this is Sam." Amata introduced herself.

"Hi." Sam said weakly.

"How are you doing?" Amata asked.

"Scared out of my mind." She told them. "I'm glad Evan's trying to do something, but unless this 'Family' problem has been nipped in the bud, we may as well stay in these shacks, and never come out."

"Well what do you think we should do?" Amata asked.

" 'We' have got to find the Family, and show them we're not gonna be pushed around." She answered. "If everyone here banded together, we'd have a chance, but everyone cares too much about themselves to do anything."

Amata nodded. "Thank you, we still need to check on the last house."

"Fine, go then." With that, Karen Schenzy closed, and relocked her door. The couple went on to the last shack before the road broke in two over the river, and knocked.

"Hello? Evan King sent us, are you okay?" Amata called. "No answer." She tried the door to find that it was unlocked. The two entered, and it took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. What they saw shocked them.

They saw two dead bodies of two people, one man, one woman, practically desiccated by some unknown creature, with cups, plates, and other detritus spread across the floor. On one of the scrap walls, written in blood were two words.

THE FAMILY

"Who could do this?" Amata asked, afraid to step inside.

"I don't know." Sam said, stepping in, and finding a light switch. "But we gotta find out." He turned it on, which lit a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, illuminating the gruesome scene better.

"Well, it's quite obvious who did it!" Amata said. "Look at that message on the wall!"

"I know, but something's off about these bodies." Sam said, crouching down to take a better look. "These people weren't shot, there's no bullet wounds."

"How can you tell?" Amata asked, trying to keep her stomach.

"The blood." He said. "It's all coming here from the neck." He told her, pointing to the wounds on the neck. "Something bit these people on the neck, tore out a bit of flesh, and then these two bled out."

"Well why is that important?" Amata asked.

"It might not be." Sam admitted. "But it seems odd."

Amata looked at the letter in her hands. "Poor Lucy." She said. "I guess we'll never be able to deliver this letter now."

The two went back into the sunlight, and walked back to Evan King, who was dutifully watching the roads. "Everyone OK?" He asked.

"The Wests are dead." Amata told him.

"Damn! The Family must have gotten to them in the last attack." He said. "Sons of bitches. Damn it, if only we had more men we could stand up to them. There weren't that many of us to begin with and now… wait a minute, when you were searching the West's house, did you find their son, Ian's body?"

"No, we only found the parent's bodies we think." Amata said, shaking her head.

"This has to be the work of The Family." He muttered. "I've caught Ian talking to their weirdo leader, down by the river." He paused, and took his eyes of the road to look at them. "Look, I know I've already asked a lot of you two, but you need to find Ian. He deserves better than this."

Sam hesitated a minute before speaking up. "Don't worry, we'll look for him."

"Thanks." Evan King said. "You two are alright."

Amata glared lightly at her boyfriend for a second. "What do we do with the letter?"

"I don't know why, but if I were you, I'd keep a hold of it. Give it to Ian if you can find him. If not, you should probably tell Lucy the bad news."

"By the way," Sam said. "Their bodies had bite marks on their necks; does that mean anything to you?"

"Bite marks? Sounds strange. The Family must have attack dogs with them." Evan King shook his head. "Great this is just what I needed."

"Where should we start looking?" Amata asked.

"For the moment I suggest you stay here." Evan King told them. "The suns setting, and on top of the Wasteland being dangerous at night, it's also when those Family freaks come out."

Sam and Amata turned to look at the horizon to see the great light in the sky getting slowly lower. "Oh! I see now, that's the sun! As in the center of the universe." Sam said. "Like in our science textbooks."

"You two a couple of wackjobs?" Evan King asked.

"Oh, no, we just recently came out of a Vault; this is our first time outside." Amata explained.

"A Vault, eh? I didn't think that anyone still lived in those things. Anyway, if you two are willing to help keep watch, we'd be glad to let you stay here, and set off in the morning."

"Sure." Amata said nodding.

* * *

Authors Note: Took me a while to write this. Not sure what to say. I'm sorry for the long wait of this, but I hope you still read this and that you enjoyed this chapter. Please review, etc. etc.

-Sincerely SAmaster01


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